[TBP]

The rampant Federalism we see today is a direct descendant of that conflict and the methods used to end it.

You mean the centralization of the Federal government. Federalism is what we had before.

One of the biggest centralizers of the time was Lincoln, and the GOP was the Big Government party.

Of course, their idea of Big Government would seem appealingly small to us today.

And Lincoln's ideas about Reconstruction were better htan those that Stevens and Sumner imposed.

[ExpatGator]

Yep.
Yep.
Yep.
His desire for reasonable terms was met. He may have been kinder still, but the official policy was not one of demeaning the South. Although, there were those who pursued their own agendas and punished the South in any way they could.