I found Guelzo's breakdown of Reconstruction and it's end to be very interesting. It showed both the pluses and minuses of Recon and allowed one to weigh the factors out for themselves. One thing that really stood out to me in the reading was how South Carolina's state debt jumped from $5.5 million to $25.7 million in only 3 years. That's an amazing amount but it makes sense if the legislators were paying for such frivolous things as a free bar and gambling debts. I really can't believe that such things were allowed to happen, but with no one to stop it, I guess it was inevitable. This made me wonder about how much money slips through the cracks these days.
   Guelzo's portrayal of Grant as being a "political nincompoop" and having a presidency that was a "miasma of corruption" was by far very different from his normal portrayal of historical figures. McClellan got it bad but I think Grant takes the cake. Poor guy..