A Country Made of Glass

It was not a nation. It was a temporary arrangement between two incompatible civilizations. The North was commercial, urban, building toward industry. The South was agrarian, hierarchical, built on enslaved labor. These were not political disagreements. These were two separate societies with separate economies, separate social orders, separate futures. They had agreed to fight one war together. That was the extent of the unity.

He had just won an impossible war. He controlled the only functional military. He held the confidence of every faction. If he had desired a crown, no force existed to stop him. Many expected it. Many would have welcomed it. Stability, in that era, was worth more than principle.