What would have happened to the Confederate leaders if the sides had reconciliation?

Keenir

Banned
excerpt from the book _How to lose a war_ edited by Bill Fawcett:

But there are a few points to the Emancipation Proclamation that are forgotten. First, that the Proclamation itself was ony part of a broader package. It was the stick, and the carrot is forgotten. While issuing the Proclamation, Lincoln also offered to the South generous terms. That if prior to January 1, 1863, the various Confederate armies agreed to demobilize, representatives from the various states in rebellion could return their representatives to Washington, as long as such representatives and their constituents reaffirmed their oath of allegiance to the Constitution. If this was done, slavery would remain in place.


but my question is this: what would happen to Jefferson Davis, Judah Benjamin, and the rest of the Confederate Government? would they be strung up on a noose in Washington DC? given an enforced retirement? sent out West?
 
excerpt from the book _How to lose a war_ edited by Bill Fawcett:

But there are a few points to the Emancipation Proclamation that are forgotten. First, that the Proclamation itself was ony part of a broader package. It was the stick, and the carrot is forgotten. While issuing the Proclamation, Lincoln also offered to the South generous terms. That if prior to January 1, 1863, the various Confederate armies agreed to demobilize, representatives from the various states in rebellion could return their representatives to Washington, as long as such representatives and their constituents reaffirmed their oath of allegiance to the Constitution. If this was done, slavery would remain in place.


but my question is this: what would happen to Jefferson Davis, Judah Benjamin, and the rest of the Confederate Government? would they be strung up on a noose in Washington DC? given an enforced retirement? sent out West?

None of those things happened OTL, after over two more years of bloody fighting, and an assassination to top it off.

Probably just an enforced retirement, in the end.
 
"If done, slavery would remain in place". Hmmm...apologies for going off on a slight tangent in your thread, but if this were so, and the Confederates did agree to return to Washington, just how long exactly would they expect slavery to remain? Surely it would just provoke another ACW a few years (decades?) later when the North next tried to force it through?
 
"If done, slavery would remain in place". Hmmm...apologies for going off on a slight tangent in your thread, but if this were so, and the Confederates did agree to return to Washington, just how long exactly would they expect slavery to remain? Surely it would just provoke another ACW a few years (decades?) later when the North next tried to force it through?

Lincoln would probably have supported passage of the Corwin Amendment, which had already passed through Congress and was before the States for ratification (technically, it is still, even today, before the States for ratification, since it was submitted to the States without a time limit), arguing that the measure was necessary in order to prevent the very thing you have suggested.
 
excerpt from the book _How to lose a war_ edited by Bill Fawcett:

But there are a few points to the Emancipation Proclamation that are forgotten. First, that the Proclamation itself was ony part of a broader package. It was the stick, and the carrot is forgotten. While issuing the Proclamation, Lincoln also offered to the South generous terms. That if prior to January 1, 1863, the various Confederate armies agreed to demobilize, representatives from the various states in rebellion could return their representatives to Washington, as long as such representatives and their constituents reaffirmed their oath of allegiance to the Constitution. If this was done, slavery would remain in place.


but my question is this: what would happen to Jefferson Davis, Judah Benjamin, and the rest of the Confederate Government? would they be strung up on a noose in Washington DC? given an enforced retirement? sent out West?

Most ex Confedrates got extremely lenient treatment IOTL, far more lenient than any other insurgency I can think of. Louis Riel, for example, was hanged. Puerto Rican nationalists have faced a crackdown spanning most of the twentieth century.

I recall some comparisons of Lincoln's approach to the CSA being like the US approach to Japan following WWII. But even in Japan you had war criminals hanged, while in the CSA only the commandant of Andersonville was. As I said, extremely lenient treatment, which in large part accounts for Reconstruction's failure.

I wouldn't even expect forced retirement under Lincoln's terms. Keep in mind many ex-Confederates sought and won public office, including the candidate for president in 1876. Expect the same for them as IOTL, except more lenient.
 
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