[dirtboy]

My my how sensitive we've become!

The irony is, had Lincoln lived, things in the South would have been much better immediately after the war - Lincoln wanted to pursue a policy of conciliation, but upon his assassination the Radical Republicans in Congress drove the agenda and Johnson had limited ability to stop them, since they could overrride his veto.

[wardaddy]

You are quite right in my view. Thad, Stanton, and Sumner and company had quite a different post war view than Abe.

Booth and his cohorts were of the McVeigh mindset.

As I've said all along....I'm a proud Southerner but not a NeoConfederate.

[WhiskeyPapa]

The irony is, had Lincoln lived, things in the South would have been much better immediately after the war - Lincoln wanted to pursue a policy of conciliation, but upon his assassination the Radical Republicans in Congress drove the agenda and Johnson had limited ability to stop them, since they could overrride his veto.

That is exactly right; Lincoln refused even to consider whether or not the so-called seceded states were even ever out of the Union. He refused to consider treason trials for any rebel leader.

He was for a soft peace, which he had begun with the reconstruction government in Louisiana in 1863. He received much abuse from his own party for vetoing the Wade-Davis Bill in 1864. This bill threw out Lincoln's "10% plan" and substituted an iron clad oath of -never- having supported the CSA in order to vote. It also set up military districts with military governors.

Winston Churchill called Lincoln "the last protector of the prostrate south."

The question really is whether or not Richmond -deserves- a statue of Lincoln.

Walt