"Northerners were impatient to hear the South say 'Uncle' and admit their defeat. The Southerners needed to be told what to do."

- Daniel J. Borstin

This quotation clearly demonstrates that the North wanted revenge for the South's secession. They wanted to make the South sorry for causing the Civil War; and the North would do so with a vengeance. The Civil War was fought because of the North and South's opposing ideas over whether the Union was one nation or a group of states that could leave whenever they wanted. The mere implication of "North" and "South", instead of "Union", shows there was friction. It was this friction that caused the Civil War, not slavery as is sometimes believed. Slavery was only a way for politicians to harness the emotions of the people.

Because the North refused to relent and the South went its own way, a four year long war ensued with over 600,000 casualties in 1861. Americans fought each other over some of the very freedoms that precipitated their earlier war for independence from England. After the North won the war, it left a conquered South to be readmitted into the Union. Deciding the best way to readmit the South was a problem because people had different ideas.