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[RZM]

44. I'm out of my element on the Civil War, I'll admit

But seeing as the whole point of the war was to preserve the Union, I think the relatively lenient treatment the South got after the war was over was in line with the overall goals of the Northern war effort, which was to preserve what was already there, not to fundamentally alter it.

It's sort of like the Easter Rebellion in Ireland in 1916. I think it's widely acknowledged that the British execution of the ringleaders was a big mistake. It turned them into martyrs. Plenty of people who were kind of on the fence about the rebellion weren't after that. From the British point of view, there was little that was gained from that. I'll bet that had the North carried out mass executions of southern leaders, history would judge that action similarly.