[r9etb]

His desire was to break the will of the Southerners....whether he did or not is something we can all debate forever.

No, I think that's been settled pretty well. If the Southern will hadn't been broken, we'd have seen evidence to that effect. To my knowledge there were no Reconstruction-era insurrections (at least, none of any significance) by Southerners, and the secessionist states did eventually come rather meekly back into the Union.

[wardaddy]

Perhaps....but meekly is a bad choice of words....it's a mistake to believe southern politeness is a sign of meekness.