> Was the Union army complicit in the crimes of the Confederacy by simply allowing them to drop their arms and walk away as well?

yes, they were. the USA if the Unionists has followed through on reconstruction looks like a utopia compared to now

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JeremyNT 21 hours ago | parent [-]

It's stuff like this that really makes me wonder about the great man theory of history.

Without JW Booth, maybe Lincoln would've broken the southern white aristocracy, and maybe Reconstruction would've succeeded. One man could've made the difference and finished the job.

Likewise, it's difficult to imagine any other con man so skilled and beloved (by a certain subset of the population) as Trump, and his singular abilities and predilections have potentially derailed the entire project of American empire - maybe permanently.

	▲	twister2920 19 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Reconstruction ended more than 10 years after Lincoln's assassination, he would not have remained in office forever. I think for most Unionists the war was not about abolition or racial equality and there simply was not the political will to make the changes necessary to prevent Jim Crow in the south.