On the Beverly Hillbillies the other evening, when Granny was asked what the Civil War was, she answered: That was when the North invaded America.

After serving in the Union Army, James A. Garfield served for seventeen years in the U.S. Congress, before becoming President of the United States. In his first speech in the House of Representatives on January 28, 1864, he called for the confiscation of the land of the Confederate planters, and its redistribution among freed slaves and white Unionists in the South. (p. 4) Garfield went on to say that, after their land was confiscated, the [Confederate] leaders of this rebellion must be executed or banished... These were harsh measures, Garfield admitted, but let no weak sentiments of misplaced sympathy deter us from inaugurating a measure which will cleanse our nation and make it the fit home of freedom. (pp. 4- 5)