General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: 158 years ago today, the largest mass execution in U.S. history took place, ordered by A. Lincoln [View all]WhiskeyGrinder
(26,990 posts)But he then that wasn't enough, because this country has always sacrificed BIPOC to ensure white people don't get mad. So he expanded the execution order for those found to have participated in the "massacres," when as a lawyer he would have known that the entire commission was a hasty, biased sham that relied on thin evidence and lacked authority. He could have ordered retrials. He didn't.
The man prized the preservation of the union over emancipation (the proclamation for which, incidentally, he signed the same week he ordered the largest mass execution in U.S. history). He said himself if he could keep the union without ending slavery, or even ending it for some but not others, he would do so. That's not leniency, that's a flawed moral calculus.