ACH: Stalinist Reconstruction
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Lateknight
Banned
If you have Lincoln alienate the radical wing of his party more then the democrats in his first turn maybe he picks a radical for VP Stevens again or someone else the most brutal would probably be Thaddeus Stevens that guy was big into that line of thought.
Lateknight
Banned
“The whole fabric of southern society must be changed, and never can it be done if this opportunity is lost. Without this, this government can never be, as it never has been, a true republic.” –September 6, 1865
“What opportunity is presented to this Republic to vindicate her consistency and become immortal. The occasion is forced upon us, and the invitation presented to strike the chains from four million of human beings, and create them
MEN; to extinguish slavery on this whole continent; to wipe out, so far as we are concerned, the most hateful and infernal blot that has ever disgraced the escutcheon of man; to write a page in the history of the world whose
brightness shall eclipse all the records of heroes and of sages.” – January 22, 1862.
“Every humane and patriotic heart must grieve to see a bloody and causeless rebellion, costing thousands of human lives and millions of treasure. But as it was predetermined and inevitable, it was long enough delayed. Now is the
appropriate time to solve the greatest problem ever submitted to civilized man.” – January 22, 1862
Those are all quotes of Stevens
He saw slavery as great moral evil(which it was and is ) he was prepared to go to radical lengths to fix this evil "Stalinist" is a bad label as it implies malice and casual brutality that sit not what wanted he wanted was a revolution of southern society. It would have harsh no doubt about that but I think would have worth it.
"A revolution of southern society" is a very far cry from anything remotely resembling either Stalinistic tactics or goals.
Something Stalinist would have to mean not merely destroying the planter hold on society but mass killing - above and beyond any trials for treason - for example.
There's not even a whisper of such ideas in any of those quotes. And I can't imagine Stevens finding collectivization to be the solution to making sure blacks as citizens were not landless sharecroppers either, to pick another thing.
You'd need a determined guerrilla campaign by southerners to get that kind of crackdown. A dead Lincoln and the whole rural south going up in flames as soldiers return home would make the next generation dream of reconstruction, if they aren't festering with hatred of everything Yankee. Lee and others not supporting reconciliation could make a (very unlikely) POD
I believe that it was both possible and desirable to destroy the planter class without injuring any one individual in a bodily sense
Simply confiscate lands and property and exile significant slave owners who had assisted war against the United States.
Actually the simple application of US law, the normal penalty for war against the United States would have made the former Soviet dictator look like an ammateur
Simply confiscate lands and property and exile significant slave owners who had assisted war against the United States.
Actually the simple application of US law, the normal penalty for war against the United States would have made the former Soviet dictator look like an ammateur
When did Butler advocate mass murder or torturing innocent people for confessions or collectivization ?
The normal penalty is not and was not torturing people to death!
Not really seeing anything to disagree with there. All slave societies are very much in need of revolution.
I'll repeat what I wrote elsewhere in the context of how to assure a rapid settlement of Alaska:
Andrew Johnson is convicted in the Senate, Ben Wade becomes Acting POTUS, and the Radicals in Congress, emboldened, pass the "Thaddeus Stevens Memorial Land Reform Act." White southerners resisting the Act are sent to re-education camps in Alaska, which has just been acquired by the United States (now the *real* reason Charles Sumner, ordinarily an enemy to Johnson and Seward, helped them get the purchase through the Senate, becomes clear )...
Andrew Johnson is convicted in the Senate, Ben Wade becomes Acting POTUS, and the Radicals in Congress, emboldened, pass the "Thaddeus Stevens Memorial Land Reform Act." White southerners resisting the Act are sent to re-education camps in Alaska, which has just been acquired by the United States (now the *real* reason Charles Sumner, ordinarily an enemy to Johnson and Seward, helped them get the purchase through the Senate, becomes clear )...
Well yes, deportations of slave owning families to "the colonies", executions of the entire officer class, but I think also collectivization: the infrastructure is already there. Just improve the living conditions, pay salaries and provide voting rights. Excess labor is used to repopulate the cities.
That's NOTHING compared to Stalinist era torture where you can last days/weeks until they finally get their confession.