Reconstruction was not a plan to rehabilitate the Southern economy. It was a plan to remake the South into the ideological image of the North, plunder its resources and economy, insure Republican political power in Washington for the long term, and punish the South for its rebellion and sins.
The most intelligent and humane method of providing economic recovery is to cut taxes and government regulations, and to provide government assistance in rebuilding infrastructure and meeting urgent humanitarian needs. Instead, an overwhelmingly Northern dominated Congress instituted punitive taxes and sent swarms of tax collectors and despotic government regulators to oversee the plunder and humiliation of the South. They were accompanied by swarms of political opportunists, shameless swindlers, and militant do-gooders.
