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"Free Republic or Slave Socialist?"

Pal, I've never questioned your conservative credentials.

I've merely noted that the South as a whole has a long and checkered history of solidly supporting redistributionists, liberals and Democrats -- as long as the money was being redistributed TO the South.

So you don't need to go around claiming that the South is conservatively pure while the North is just corrupt.

It ain't so.

So you don't need to go around claiming that the South is conservatively pure while the North is just corrupt. It ain't so.

“I’ve merely noted that the South as a whole has a long and checkered history of solidly supporting redistributionists, liberals and Democrats — as long as the money was being redistributed TO the South.”

You mean like those famous Southerners, Wilson, Roosevelt, and the Kennedy Dynasty? Please. Between them, we saw the biggest degradation of America in history.

As far as money being redistributed goes - nice job with reconstruction. The thorough planning that went into accommodating blacks up in the north, especially New England, the touching way the northerners welcomed them into their communities and helped them out ... it was all very moving.

Oh, wait ... those experimental socialist plans ... they were supposed to be carried out in the Southern states, weren’t they? Well, never mind. There were so many happy blacks living in the north after the war, they probably didn’t need them to work out after all. Which is good, because after the Pubbies were through with their graft, there wouldn’t be anything left anyway.

It certainly proves your point about the freedom loving north being all about freedom for slaves, I guess, huh? The detail that went into yankee planning for those freed is deeply touching and a credit to you northerners ... you were in it to free them all along. Why, as soon as the war ended, being able to go into northeren cities seeing them all integrated and happily living side by side with you all ... it must really have been something to see. A real proof of why you fought.

Oh and all that money and territory you snatched up wasn’t too bad either. Using all that money from the South to help those black folks was a nice touch, too. But I think that welcoming them into your homes, giving them shelter after burning down their homes, that was very nice. Hmpph.

“Andrew Johnson appointed new governors in the summer of 1865, and quickly declared that the war goals of national unity and the ending of slavery had been achieved, so that reconstruction was completed.

Republicans in Congress refused to accept Johnson’s lenient terms, rejected the new members of Congress selected by the South, and in 1865-66 broke with the president. A sweeping Republican victory in the 1866 Congressional elections in the North gave the Radical Republicans enough control of Congress that they over-rode Johnson’s vetoes and began what is called “Radical reconstruction” in 1867.

Congress removed the civilian governments in the South in 1867 and put the former Confederacy under the rule of the U.S. Army. The army then conducted new elections in which the freed slaves could vote while those who held leading positions under the Confederacy were denied the vote and could not run for office.

In ten states, coalitions of freedmen, Carpetbaggers and Scalawags formed Republican state governments, introduced reconstruction programs, massive aid to railroads, built public schools, and raised taxes. Conservative opponents charged that Republican regimes were marred by widespread corruption.”

Yep. Sounds like the north just HATED redistributionists, socialized governments and all ... some wonder what was worse ... the war itself or the coup the Republicans staged and the thuggery they perpetrated AFTER the war.

Not to mention the door that was opened to MASSIVE federal takeovers and plundering through force. It was a little like today’s Dems, running everything and telling us to STFU and pay the taxes, change the whole economy and prepare for Federal domination.

In August 1862, Lincoln met with African American leaders and urged them to colonize some place in Central America. Lincoln planned to free the slaves in the Emancipation Proclamation and he was concerned that freedmen would not be well treated in the United States by Whites both in the North and South. Although Lincoln gave assurances that the United States government would support and protect any colonies, the leaders declined the offer of colonization. Many free blacks had been opposed to colonization plans in the past and wanted to remain in the United States. President Lincoln persisted in his colonization plan believing that emancipation and colonization were part of the same program. Lincoln was successful by April, 1863 at sending black colonists to Haiti and 453 to Chiriqui in Central America; however, none of the colonies were able to remain self-sufficient. Frederick Douglas, a prominent 19th century American civil rights activist, criticized that Lincoln was "showing all his inconsistencies, his pride of race and blood, his contempt for Negroes and his canting hypocrisy." African Americans, according to Douglas, wanted citizen rights rather than to be colonized. By the end of 1863 President Lincoln gave up on African American colonization.

Gee, why was Abe worried that freedmen would not be well treated in the United States by Whites both in the North and South.

That's a puzzle .. especially because all of those big hearted, loving northerners wanted them to be free and living among them as brothers?

And why would a party so committed to being conservative have so MANY socialized programs?