Thanks for stearing this back to center.

I totally empathize with your stand. But the "Gilded Age", as Twain called it, of the forgotten presidents is to me a clear sign of the poor leadership in the White House. The worst record in presidential history. If any credit is given to the softness of treatment to the South (although I don't believe stealing, corruption, and injustice towards a people who already had nothing, and were not to blame for the war was no where 'soft') it would have to go to Northern public opinion, which finally put an end to Reconstruction and help guide the two sections to reunite. By the 1890s it was popular to hero worship Southern heros in the North and vis versa. The turning of the century saw complete reversal of attitudes between the veterans' children of the war.

I learned something here, the 1880 election. General Winfield Scott Hancock, hero of Gettysburg, a main contributor of the crushing defeat of the Confederate Army and the Secessionist, overwhelmingly carried the South in the election, and a really close election, what kind of statement is that?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:ElectoralCollege1880-Large.png

__________________
David Upton