Davis Hang Jeff Davis from a Sour Apple Tree!

[matthew mckeon]

Well, that didn't happen.

They are having a discussion whether Gen. Lee was a traitor or not? I'm not going to derail that theme, but it prompted the thought: what kind of punishment should the Confederate leadership received?

I have, as you might expect, opinions on this.

 

[Pat Young]

Well, that didn't happen.

They are having a discussion whether Gen. Lee was a traitor or not? I'm not going to derail that theme, but it prompted the thought: what kind of punishment should the Confederate leadership received?

I have, as you might expect, opinions on this.

The political leaders were not covered by the protections offered to surrendering soldiers by Grant and Sherman.

 

[matthew mckeon]

First off, besides suffering in the war and being impoverished in some cases, and all the killing, what punishment did the Confederate leadership(Davis, Stephens, Benjamin, the rest of the cabinet, Confederate congressmen and senators, and let's say everyone over the rank of colonel) get? Seems to me there wasn't much in the way of legal reprisals.

 

[matthew mckeon]

The political leaders were not covered by the protections offered to surrendering soldiers by Grant and Sherman.

Nope, but they didn't get any real punishment. Brief imprisonment for Davis, less for Stephens. No show trials, no mass executions, no fun! These guys were the decision makers, and the brass executed and had input into those decisions.

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

Benjamin Judah was the only one who somehow got off to England and picked up his legal career over there and did well.

 

[matthew mckeon]

I'm unhappy with nothing, no reprisals.

On the other hand, I lack the childlike faith in mass executions that some bloggers have. Shoot all the Confederate congress. Does utopia then descend unto the earth? What is there are still problems? Shoot some more people. Then some more. Its one of those roads that are hard to get turn back from.

 

[matthew mckeon]

My solution would be: mass exile. Lincoln was right. Let Davis and rest of them escape. If you capture them by accident, put them on a boat and send them to Europe, or somewhere. Don't let them back in. Scrape the frosting from the cake.

They can earn an honest living, somewhere. Joe Johnson drives a taxi in London. Beauregard opens a cafe in Paris. Lee lectures at Sandhurst. Alex Stephens soaks up the sun in Barcelona. They all write their memoirs. They while away the hours bickering over who outflanked who. A kind of Purgatory.

 

[archieclement]

Well, that didn't happen.

They are having a discussion whether Gen. Lee was a traitor or not? I'm not going to derail that theme, but it prompted the thought: what kind of punishment should the Confederate leadership received?

I have, as you might expect, opinions on this.

Exactly what he got, living out the rest of his life on the beachfront in Biloxi. Its what happens when one isn't convicted of anything

http://www.visitbeauvoir.org/

BTW glad to see it appears to have recovered from the hurricane damage a few years back nicely. And to be fair it would have been tougher there in Davis's day without all the casino buffets..........going to Biloxi first ruined the Vegas buffets for me, but partial to fresh gulf seafood and Cajun

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

In a fundamental sense, peace-making and grudge-keeping are incompatible.

Perhaps, in one view, it wasn't "justice." But was "justice" sufficient cause to risk an extension or recurrence of the war? Even as things went, as we know, it wasn't all peaches and cream after 1865. Draconian measures, even assuming the Union in general had the stomach for them, had a strong potential for making things worse.

 

[matthew mckeon]

In a fundamental sense, peace-making and grudge-keeping are incompatible.

Perhaps, in one view, it wasn't "justice." But was "justice" sufficient cause to risk an extension or recurrence of the war? Even as things went, as we know, it wasn't all peaches and cream after 1865. Draconian measures, even assuming the Union in general had the stomach for them, had a strong potential for making things worse.

As far as I can tell, they were going to hold the grudge anyway. Fine, they can hold it in Brazil.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Er... I was actually thinking of the grudge Unionists had against the Confederates.

 

[Northern Light]

Lincoln thought that reprisals would make things worse. He just wanted everything to settle down and everyone to get on with life. I imagine he had some kind of "Marshall Plan" in the back of his mind to help rebuild the South. John Wilkes Booth put paid to that, and without Lincoln to control all the rabid dogs in Washington, well we know what happened.

Executions create martyrs and that is exactly what Lincoln was afraid would happen. Davis wanted to be a martyr, but wasn't allowed to be so. Ironically, Lincoln became the great martyr of the Rebellion, when he probably would have been the south's best friend.

I like to think of Booth slow roasting over a fire in some very warm climate, well basted with the sauce of regret.

 

[DanSBHawk]

I wonder if there HAD been post-war trials, imprisonments, and executions of the most culpable leaders, whether the country would have avoided much of the post-war difficulties such as Jim Crow, the KKK, Lost Cause revisionism, etc.

Perhaps a more definitive settling of the war and exacting justice on the perpetrators would have had a better outcome. Hard to say.

 

[leftyhunter]

Well, that didn't happen.

They are having a discussion whether Gen. Lee was a traitor or not? I'm not going to derail that theme, but it prompted the thought: what kind of punishment should the Confederate leadership received?

I have, as you might expect, opinions on this.

Many nations have had civil wars and they are occurrng has we speak. No one size fitsall answer how the loosers are treated and reconstruction and it reconciliation is achieved.
The losers of the Civil War never tried for Civil War 2.0 . On the other hand the federal government threw the blacks and Unionists under the bus. Tough legacy.
Leftyhunter

 

[wausaubob]

If the people of the southern states did not have a sense of offense at what the leaders of the Confederacy had imposed upon them, especially during the last five months of the war, then there was not much point in trying to impose punishment from the outside.
My own view is that except for the fact that they called themselves a government, the men who continued the war past Lincoln's re-election committed murder.
But the southerners did not see it that way. They saw little connection between the decisions made on their behalf and the ruin of their region.

 

[wausaubob]

Rather than treason trials, a broad land reform program imposing terms of leaseholds and contract purchase rights, for both whites and blacks, as to significant portions of lands owned by secessionists would have had a positive effect. That was beyond the capacity of a government that could not get beyond **** and the absolute protection of property.

 

[SWMODave]

 

[O' Be Joyful]

View attachment 182917

They were obviously recoiling in horror at the possibility that he would read from his book.

 

[jgoodguy]

They were obviously recoiling in horror at the possibility that he would read from his book.

That is a distinct possibility.

IMHO. The people in the time and place with the most knowledge, experience and most at risk made a choice that worked.

 

[Ole Miss]

DanSBHawk
Please understand I am not supporting or advocating for any of the racist behavior by the Confederacy or those states who were former members in my comments below. And in fact being a resident of Mississippi makes it difficult for me to express an opinion on this subject, as I am accused of being a racist, but here is my sincere effort.

Executing any and all of the political leaders of the Confederacy immediately after the ACW would not have prevented the emergence of the Klan, Black Codes, Jim Crow Laws or the Lost Cause Myth. The Klan rose in the South but also showed its ugly head in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin during the 1920's. How would a harsh punishment of Confederate leaders prevented racism in the Upper Mid West 60 plus years later? Many states north of the Mason-Dixon line had Jim Crow Laws as well.

A reconstruction program could not and did not eliminate racism anywhere in the South or North as society was deeply racist. Northern racial attitudes prevented Washington from having made any serious effort to be supportive of blacks and tacitly allowed white legislators in the South rise to power again. Economic factors were behind this indifference I do believe.
Regards
David