The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was."
Not hardly. No sale on that one. The Union was never again "the Union as it was" -- because Lincoln and his circle made damned sure it would never again be what it was.
That was the whole point of the war, just as John Quincy Adams had envisioned it 20 years before -- a recasting of the Union without the "undesirable" parts that made people too free.
They killed a million people to make America safe for high tariffs and time-cards, bullying niggardly employers, highhanded and high-hatted billionaires and wage-breakers, and bossism generally.
A rich man's paradise.
Seriously, you should join the Occupy crowd. You sound exactly like them.
A rich man's paradise.
Spoken like a true class warrior.