WI: All former Confederate States forced to change names

So then, what if Abraham Lincoln had elected to implement Benjamin Butler's proposal, and the states of the defeated Confederate States had been relegated to territories, renamed, divided and merged in the manner proposed by Butler? How much of an impact do you think this would have had- could it have succeeded in eliminated Southern State pride, and pride in the CSA, as Butler believed it would? Or would it have been more likely IYO to have led to a backlash of ramped-up anti-US sentiment, hostility, revanchism and racism from the peoples of the former confederacy?

Roughly 40% of the army officers and 60% of the navy officers from Confederate states stayed with the Union. I suspect neither they nor other southern Unionists would like the idea.
 
Some have mentioned that dividing up estates is unlawful seizure of property, but I can think of one harsh, but quasi-legal, solution. Offer every officer in the CSA a choice: Treason trial, or forfeit X assets.

A bit difficult when nearly all of them were protected by the terms of their military capitulations. Repudiating these would be likely to trigger the resignations of Grant, Sherman and several other generals, and drive them (and many of their colleagues) into opposition to the Republicans.



Same with politicians, and an even easier case. Then, divide up the land in some areas, bringing people in that want to live there--a bigger collection of permanent carpetbaggers and scalawags. Not necessarily a good solution, but I can see it being tried.

How do you persuade more than a handful to go there? The South was a total wreck, and if someone just wanted land they'd be more likely to go west, where there was far less risk of a bullet in the back on some country lane or other.

BTW, in 1866 the House included a clause in the 14th Amendment disfranchising ex-Rebs till 1870, but the Senate wouldn't wear it. If even that was seen as too much, what chance does wholesale confiscation have?
 
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