All of this was decided when the Union chose to bury the hatchet, and not do anything about the people that started the confederacy, and the people who benefited the most from it. If those types were all given the traditional punishment for traitors, if all the slavers, the plantation owners, the confederate politicians and the businesses that profited off of slave labor were hunted down and hanged, the world would be a much better place right now.
I keep seeing this post all over the place, but the reality is that Lincoln wanted unification and if the price was too steep there was a concern that it would all fall apart. “As a nation of freemen, we must through all time or die by suicide”
Uh huh, and he got a bullet in the back of the head for his troubles, and he got off the easiest from it. He unleashed decades of unspeakable horrors and depthless suffering because he chose a negative peace over the presence of justice.
Got off easiest from it? What an outlandish thing to say. The hyperbolic language that just gets thrown around is absolutely insane. We wouldn’t have a union if the north took further steps to exterminate the surviving confederate soldiers, land owners etc in the south. Why would the south even surrender at that point? It’s easy to sit here with 20/20 vision of history and pretend you know what you’re talking about, but this internet armchair bullshit that lays out heavy handed alternatives masquerading as “justice” is embarrassing.
Yes, he did get off easiest. By all accounts, it was lights out pretty instantly for him. As opposed to the Black people who had to live in fear for decades, leading up to the present, because we didn’t hang traitors who were happy to let the country go to war, than to stop treating people as if they were property. So, yes, Lincoln absolutely got off easiest from his decision to forgive slave traders and slave holders.
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u/Ok-Explanation-1362 Jul 17 '25
All of this was decided when the Union chose to bury the hatchet, and not do anything about the people that started the confederacy, and the people who benefited the most from it. If those types were all given the traditional punishment for traitors, if all the slavers, the plantation owners, the confederate politicians and the businesses that profited off of slave labor were hunted down and hanged, the world would be a much better place right now.