How could the Southerners be denied the vote? Had the war been won in 1862, the Union preserved, and Southerners, however reluctantly, are citizens of it. If memory serves, most of the states had been readmitted to the Union before the 1868 election, so I would imagine that had the war ended early, at least some of the southern states would have been eligible to vote in 1864, right? (I have not a clue, so it’s a genuine question, not a rhetorical one)
GoddessOdd