On Wed, 2005-03-09 at 21:45 -0500, Peter H. Granzeau wrote: > At 18:12 03/09/2005, Steve Brust wrote: > >I respect your hero worship; the more I learn about the Lincoln, the > >more I admire him. But it seems to me that during the remainder of what > >would have been Lincoln's last term, Congress did just about everything > >that could have been done. I may be full of it here; I'm only just > >starting to study Reconstruction. But it does seem like the real > >counterrevolution didn't get going until around 1868-9; and that Grant > >should get more credit for fighting the good fight it then he's usually > >given. > > Conventional wisdom is that Lincoln would probably have been a moderating > influence on the Republicans in Congress who passed the worst of the > Reconstruction measures over Johnson's veto. Johnson had been a Democrat, > thus had no power base in Congress. > > I have no idea how accurate that idea is. > Well, I sort of think the "worst" of the Reconstruction measures were exactly the right thing (military protection of Freemen, for example). By 1870 or '71, Grant was just about the only person in government still trying trying to enforce that. > --