----- Original Message ----- From: "Gautam Mukunda" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2004 8:15 AM Subject: Re: Why fight in the Civil War?
> --- Robert Seeberger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > I agree with most of what you are saying, but to > > cast the RR's as > > "good guys" without qualification is a bit simple. > > They should be > > given great credit for the 14th and 15th amendments, > > those were > > necessary in light of Southern resistance. But one > > must also consider > > what they didn't do many things that they should > > have. > > I agree with this, but don't think it was for lack of > intention. Fanaticism, definitely (which tends to > lead to political incompetence, I think), but not > because they didn't want to. If Republican moderates had not let themselves be led by the Radicals, do you think the party would have had an easier time consolidating power in Congress? I'm thinking that after Johnson was stripped of power (leading to the era of strong Speakers of the House) that Moderates would have had more appeal with white Southerners along with the Black vote that the Radicals sought. > > > Was the post-war North economically strong enough to > > revitalize the > > Southern economy? > > Probably not. The South took something like a century > to recover fully from defeat in the Civil War, I > believe. OTOH, it's worth remembering that _before_ > the war the average Southerner was much worse off than > the average Northerner. Literacy rates were much > lower, etc. Slavery, as Lincoln acutely commented, > was degrading for the master, not only the slave. One only has to visit the houses where sharecroppers lived as late as the 1950s and 1960s to see how long this took. xponent Birthplace Of Elvis Maru rob _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
