re: #132 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge

We should have either thrown them out without waiting for them to secede, or else after completely conquering them and reincorporating them into the Union, kept our boots on their necks until they civilized themselves. Just another of the many things we do half-assed in this country.

And as I’ve said before, I blame Dan Sickles for brokering the deal ending Reconstruction in return for the Electoral votes of states with no popular vote—how was that even possible?

Letting the South go would have been a disaster. For starters, slavery would have dragged on at least for decades. And then there’s the economic aspect. Imagine toll booths and customs duties up and down the Mississippi. And then there’s the military side of things. Imagine Germany inveigling the Confederacy into WW1 on her side. Not that it would have gone that way, but Germany would have tried for it and might have made it happen.

There are so many downsides to a Confederacy that it’s just stomach churning to think how bad it could have been. Our real-world situation, warts and all, is so very much better than any reasonably likely outcome of a Confederate States that gained its independence, with or without war.