Generally speaking, when a war ends, it is necessary to liquidate the defeated countries or war criminals, and reward the heroes based on their merits. By the end of the American Civil War, nothing was said about the heroes of the Civil War. Winners and losers, history has always been written by the victors, and demonizing the losers is also normal, but neither does the United States. Not only did the United States fail to try and convict war criminals, but even the officers and soldiers who died in the South were allowed to enter the national cemetery. President Lincoln also granted amnesty to the southern rebels, allowed the defeated rebels to go home and live in peace, and paid them resettlement allowances, which were as much as those of retired northern soldiers. Such post-war resettlement had never happened before.
The American Civil War already had a lot of modern weapons and equipment, so the number of casualties in the war was very high, with 600,000 people killed in the war, which was already a lot considering the population ratio at that time. The best people in a war are always the first to die. The Civil War caused the United States to lose too many outstanding talents, so what reason is there to celebrate? Americans began to reflect on why they were at war with each other? This tragic memory makes Americans hate the Civil War deeply. No matter what, it is intolerable and unacceptable to target fellow citizens with swords and guns. There has been no civil war in the United States since.
After Lincoln's death, President Johnson implemented the same treatment policy, thus offending Congress and causing him to become the first president to be impeached in American history. The North advocated punishing the chief culprit and not the followers, but Johnson did not follow suit. Johnson implemented the leniency policy because he was a Southerner and the only Southern congressman to remain in the North.
The most outrageous thing is that General Lee, the commander-in-chief of the rebels, did not even serve a day in jail. He eventually became the president of the University of Washington. He gave speeches everywhere and was widely respected. To this day, there are statues of him across the United States, and he is often remembered by Americans.
After the Civil War, the federal Congress and the states ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. It is expressly stipulated that slavery is prohibited within the territory of the United States. In 1868, in order to solve the citizenship issue of black people, the U.S. Congress and states passed the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. All persons born or naturalized within the territory of the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens of the United States.
The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution marked the beginning of the end of dual federalism, making the constitutional rule of law and separation of powers further deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in the United States, forming a solid constitutional cultural foundation.
Before the Civil War, the United States was not a sovereign and unified country in the modern sense. The federation was, in a sense, just a contract and voluntary combination between states. Although the Civil War caused a lot of damage and casualties to the United States, it could not be destroyed or rebuilt. Lincoln created a brand new United States on the ruins, a country with unified sovereignty, systems, and development models. As a result, the United States had the opportunity to become the world's number one power in the 20th century. .
