Aftermath

[johan_steele]

What if the victorious Union had taken every CS politician, general officer and hanged them after Wars end. What if every plantation owner had his land confiscated and divied up among their former slaves. Would this have been more in line w/ the European way of dealing w/ unsucessful rebels?

Would this have created a weaker US than we have now or a stronger less factioned one?

Just asking for some thought... "What if" the reconstruction had been much harsher?

[hoosier]

As it was, Reconstruction was sufficiently harsh to create a sense of resentment that persists to this day.

My thought is that, if Reconstruction had been taken to such draconian extremes as you described, the sense of resentment would have been far deeper. I believe the country would have been more sharply divided and, in the long run, weaker than the US we have now.

[dawna]

I agree with George and I also wonder how Reconstruction would have proeeded if President Lincoln had not been assassinated, since there were radical republicans in Congress who were in favour of more harsher measures concerning the South.

Dawna

[sockknitter]

What an interesting thing to stop and think about.

Truly, I think that if all politicians and general officers had been hanged, it would have awakened revulsion throughout the North, and it goes without saying, the South. I can see the argument that by a long stretching of the point they could have been regarded as traitorous but by that reasoning, and shedding hypocrisy, the “Patriots” of the American Revolution would have to be regarded as such also, except in their case they were the victors. I really don’t think the American public would stand by passively if such wholesale hangings occurred. At the least, there would be many turnovers at the next elections, and at the worst, there would more rebellions and attempted secessions—some from formerly Union areas.

As for distributing plantation lands among slaves, it has some poetic and wishful thinking justice, but I’m trying to put myself back in an 1860s frame of mind. I am assuming today’s people can stomach more tendencies toward governmental intervention such as public schools, regulated media and utilities, income taxes, Social Security, eminent domain cases, food and drug laws, etc., but even today I think there is a strain of sympathy for private ownership and a sense of fairness regarding property.

If plantations (and why not town mansions, shipyards, etc., while you’re at it?) were taken from owners and distributed among their former slaves, I think there would have been HUGE outcry and fighting. It could have erupted as guerrilla war or other violence. I believe this confiscation would lead to a worse war and the United States would have been horribly weakened and possibly obliterated.

Just my spur of the moment thoughts, not carved in stone.

[thea_447]

I think it would have created a much weaker Union. Given enough time, people revolt at the idea of killing just to "punish". Look at the various opinions on capital punishment in the last hundred years. Where once a man was hanged for stealing a horse, now he sometimes gets counseling, a trip to a mental hospital and eventual freedom after raping and murdering. Think of all the men on death row right now because of the different factions fighting for either his life or his death.

Sockknitter brings up an interesting point with the comparison to the American Revolution. Southerners already felt that they had fought the Second American Revolution. It wouldn't take much for fence-sitting Unionists to side with them after several hundred had been done to death as punishment for the war.

Death alone has been spared the South following the war. Sanctions of every sort are going on to this very DAY.

The only time the various sections of this country are united nowadays is when we face a common enemy. It always takes something like a 9-11 or a Pearl Harbor to bring us together.

No, the Union would definitely be more splintered. As it is today, the Union is an organization of states, nothing more...except when someone brings war to our door-step.

[bill_torrens]

If you'll forgive yet another foreign analogy, look at the aftermath of the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916. The rebels had secured virtually no public support and were mocked and vilified by their fellow-countrymen. Until the British started executing them. This changed everything and led to de facto independence for most of the island within five years.

If the steps Shane suggests had been implemented my guess is that most Southerners would have felt that they had absolutely nothing to lose by undertaking armed resistance as guerrillas.

(Message edited by Bill_torrens on October 28, 2004)

[dawna]

Bill, do you suppose that you and I are foreigners?!

Dawna

[dawna]

Bill:

I confess to inhaling too much Canadian air today as the first time around I understood your posting to read yet another foreigner's analogy, and therefore I thought you were teasing those few of us on this board who are non-U.S. members...perhaps I've been riding under too many power lines or maybe it's time to switch to decaf!

Well Bill, at least we share the same Monarch, and since I will be spending Christmas in England this year, I may have to spar with you on your own turf!

Dawna

Dawna,
How I envy you!! I would dearly love to spend Christmas in the UK. Maybe one day I’ll get to. I spent quite a long time over there on 2 separate trips but one was in the early summer and the other in the fall. Both lovely. Yet I want so badly to be there when it is rainy, gloomy, maybe even some snow. Seriously. Christmas where there are actually snow covered thatch homes. Just like a Christmas Card.

As to the thread. Such actions would never have been accepted by either side. It would have led to constant conflict. In fact the KKK was pretty much created for just such an occasion. There would have been resistance fighters to this day. That is not even to mention the Constitutional issues that would arise from seizing property.

YMOS
tommy

(Message edited by aphillbilly on October 28, 2004)

[dawna]

Tommy:

This is my first trip to England and I'm literally counting the days! I'm sure that a country so rich in history will satisfy my curiosity and I expect to have rambled around in a few castles before my holiday is over.

My daughter decided to travel after finishing University a few years ago, and April was only in England for a few weeks when she was offered the job of her dreams. April has lived in Leicester since then and she has guaranteed me an authentic Dicken's Christmas if I fly across the pond this year. So it appears I will need to trade in my white knuckle flying gloves for something a little more courageous!

How fortunate that you have travelled to England twice...any tips would be greatly appreciated, and I believe that you have indicated in the past that your Mom is British?

Dawna