--- Robert Seeberger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I think that is to some extent "spin". The kind > where only part of the > truth is presented in order to make a point. I > suspect that it > originates with the Radical Republicans (The > Reconstruction era ones, > not the contemporary ones <G>) as part of their > program to vilify the > South in Northern minds for the purpose of gaining > support in > punishing the South. > > xponent
Well, it depends on what you mean by punishing the South, right? The Radical Republicans were reviled in history and in the South for punishing the South for forcing horrible things down the throat of the South...like giving freed slaves the vote, for example, and insisting on no segregation, etc. That was their real sin in the eyes of most of the South. It's worth remembering that in the first elections after the war, the Southern states all went ahead and elected secessionist radicals - they apparently hadn't learned a thing. It was only _after_ this that the "Radical" Republicans cracked down. Were _all_ Southern whites pro-secession? No, clearly not. Were a significant majority? I don't think there's any doubt that they were. Now, had Lincoln not been assassinated, would things have gone very differently? Of course they would have. But he was. And from the perspective of civil rights for blacks, it's basically been erased from modern memory that the high point between 1776 and 1960 or so was _1877_ - the end of Reconstruction. When the Republican Party sold out Southern blacks in exchange for Democrats conceding the 1876 election, civil rights took a devastating blow that they took _90 years_ to recover from. This, btw, should be an important lesson for liberals who feel that we should be flexible in interpreting the Constitution. Not all change is progress. Civil rights got _worse_ between 1877 and the 1920s or so, not better. So it seems a bit unfair that the "Radical Republicans" are still vilified as radicals for advocating such radical ideas as racial equality. ===== Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Search - Find what you�re looking for faster http://search.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
