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Although this was the way the federal government planned to proceed, that prolific South-hater, Thaddeus Stevens, couldn't keep his mouth shut and he let the cat out of the bag. Stevens said: "The Southerners should be treated as a conquered alien enemy...This can be done without violence to the established principles only on the theory that the Southern states were severed from the Union and were an independent government de facto and an alien enemy to be dealt with according to the laws of war...No reform can be effected in the Southern States if they have never left the Union..." And, although he did not plainly say it, what Stevens really desired was that the Christian culture of the Old South be 'reformed' into something more compatible with his beliefs. No matter how you look at it, the feds tried to have it both ways - they claimed the South was in rebellion and had never been out of the Union, but then it had to do certain things to 'get back' into the Union it had never been out of. Strange, is it not, that the 'history' books never seem to pick up on this?

Even the Radical Republicans refused to accept Stevens' arguments. Even Radical Republicans claimed that secession was illegal. Reconstruction was justified on the grounds that the federal government had the responsibility to ensure republican forms of government in the southern states. After the war, the federal government found no state governments (the officials had fled) and created a military government. To suggest Stevens' viewpoints were mainstream is absurd. To do that would be like quoting Ron Paul (R-TX) today and say he speaks for the dominant faction of today's Republican Party.

The author of this essay needs to brush up on history.