Oh please, you can’t compare the American character to the Chinese, for God’s sake. Not in its entire history. Nowhere did I compare the North’s behavior after the war to any of the examples you just gave. Oliver Cromwell? Robespierre?
But that doesn’t mean they couldn’t have done better and been smarter.
By doing what? The south engaged in a bloody and protracted rebellion that killed hundreds of thousands of people. And once they surrendered they attempted to keep the same people who led the rebellion in power and enacted laws meant to keep the newly freed slaves in a position as closely resembling slavery as possible. And you think that there shouldn't have been any repercussions?