Well, no offense, but they are a lot easier to understand.
You are lamenting the licking that you justly called down on yourselves. And now you want to poor-mouth your contribution to your own misfortune and blame the vast blue machine for sticking to its guns and doing you the number that you very nearly did to them, and would have, had they been of less stern mettle.
Shame on you for whining about it 140 years after the fact. Get over it, man.