While I do not believe in reparations for slaves, I do feel that the Federal Government, The US Army and Yankees need to acknowledge their wrongs committed in the name of supposed "Union of States". It was nothing more than imperialism at its worst. The forced subjugation of the Southern States to remain in the Union was totally against what the Founders had fought for ... LIBERTY ... Man-over-Government ... self-determination! Lincoln totally prostituted the values our Founders bled for to further his own agenda. He didn't care about the slaves, but he did care about his damned revenues! He usurped the Constitution where he could get away with it under the guise of "extraordinary times calling for extraordinary measures." There is nothing in the Constitution that gave him the power to set aside Habeas Corpus ... that originally was to be decided by Congress with the guidance of the Supreme Court. His shutting down of news papers that didn't support his stand on war with the Confederate States ... a clear violation of the 1st Amendment. Military tribunals for civilians in Maryland?! Come on now .... Maryland was put under martial law for the express purpose of keeping it from voting on secession!
Then lets move on to Reconstruction (?) ... if you agree that setting up puppet governments in the Southern States was for the good of the Country, then you do not believe in Individual Liberty as conceived of by the Founders, nor the Republic they set up. Not to mention "Reconstruction" was nothing more than a guise for Yankee Carpetbaggers to head south and get rich off of picking the corpse of the Confederacy. They were nothing more than jackals who stripped the leavings that Sherman and his vandals overlooked when they went through. Yet you say the civilian populace of the South deserved no less because they had the temerity to secede? Horse sh*t! They utilized that which was a cornerstone of American belief for years ( and still is by the way) ... the right to alter or abolish a government when it fails to accomplish their needs! You know ... Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness?! But because they failed in their quest, you apparently agree they were rightfully at the mercy of a vengeful government. No sir! The North had no right to strip the Southern States civilians during or after the war.
But if you're of the school "Might makes right" then you will have to concur that what Hitler and Stalin did was okay also, no matter how many they killed or whose liberty was taken away. You can't have it both ways.
Just cause Lee surrendered don't mean I did!