Yes, well, I know there were boo-coo scoundrels in the lot of carpetbaggers who descended on the prostate (I mean prostrate) South to make money at the expense of the down-trodden.

It was a shameful major part of the Reconstruction, but knowing human nature the way it is, I don't think it would have been any different if the shoe had been on the other foot and the victorious South had dictated the terms of peace.

I don't think it would have been merely a case of "we've won the right to stay on our side of the fence and made you stay on yours."

I think all the deaths it would have taken to get there would've demanded a more severe conclusion. A victorious Southern army would've been driven by the politicians to exact its "pound of flesh" on the defeated.

I'm sorry, I'm not one to buy into the myth of the saintly South just tryin' to be left alone. Again, had the shoe been on the other foot, it would be those in blue, not you, crying all those tears into their beers.

I realize that's a major what-if, but that's the nature of historical speculation.