After Appomattox: Michael A. Ross discusses Reconstruction and the three branches

[Draggingtree]

After Appomattox: Michael A. Ross discusses Reconstruction and the three branches

By Kali Borkoski on Mar 13, 2015 at 11:30 am

On March 11, the Supreme Court Historical Society presented the first installment of this year’s Leon Silverman Lecture Series. In acknowledgment of the 150th anniversary of the Confederate surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, the theme of the 2015 lecture series is “The Supreme Court and Reconstruction.”

Justice Anthony Kennedy, who appeared ready for spring in a lovely lavender tie, hosted the lecture in the Court’s chamber. He was joined by the Court’s portrait of Justice Samuel Freeman Miller – a Lincoln appointee and the author of the majority opinion in the Slaughter-House Cases – which was given a place of honor next to the speaker’s podium.

Wednesday’s lecturer was Michael A. Ross, Associate Professor of History at the University of Maryland.

Ross began his lecture at the chronologically obvious point for a talk about Reconstruction: General Lee’s surrender. By the time Lee surrendered, the war had cost over 620,000 lives and $6.6 billion. (To put this sum into perspective, Ross noted that it would have been sufficient to buy the freedom of all the slaves, and give them each forty acres, and still have $3.5 billion remaining.) To end the fighting was an enormously consequential action. But equally consequential was that the war ended without a peace treaty. Five days after Lee surrendered, President Lincoln was assassinated and his vision of Reconstruction, which including dissolving the entire leadership of the Confederacy and extending suffrage to at least some black men, died.Continue reading » http://www.scotusblog.com/2015/03/after-appomattox-michael-a-ross-discusses-reconstruction-and-the-three-branches/#more-226097

[Valin]

@Draggingtree

 

 

By the time Lee surrendered, the war had cost over 620,000 lives and $6.6 billion. (To put this sum into perspective, Ross noted that it would have been sufficient to buy the freedom of all the slaves, and give them each forty acres, and still have $3.5 billion remaining.)

 

1. Let me state the obvious....That war was about slavery.

2. But it was also about more than slavery. What kind of nation were we going to be. Agrarian or manufacturing, Strong or weak central government? Hamilton's vision or Jefferson?

 

 

In regards to Reconstruction, one of the great What If's.....What If Lincoln had not been assassinated? Would the radical Republicans been able to have their way?