The North was damn near as bad as the Confederacy
Sorry, but this is laughable. Not a single practice, custom, or condition in the Northern states comes close to the moral outrage that was slavery, and every atrocity committed by the North during the war was matched or exceeded by the South. At worst, the Union government stretched its Constitutional powers and authorized some unpleasant treatment of Southern civilians; the South, meanwhile, openly backed the murder of black soldiers and based their government on the principle of human bondage. Alexander Stephens, in his infamous
Cornerstone Speech,
actually said that slavery was the foundation of the Confederate government, and whatever objections libertarian-types might have to Lincoln's handling of the war effort, neither he nor any Union official went so far as to name racism as one of America's greatest strengths.
I might add that the narrative of "political suppression" of Confederate sympathizers in the North is extremely overstated. Not a single Northerner was executed for their political beliefs, and the number arrested for subverting the war effort was quite low, especially in comparison to actions taken in other wars. Furthermore, there was no systematic attempt by the Lincoln Administration to silence "Copperheads" in the North, and the Democrats were allowed to conduct their 1864 campaign unhindered even when Lincoln thought he would loose the election. In any case, it's nonsensical to argue that civil rights abuses in the North are somehow comparable to the enslavement of 3 Million African-Americans in the South.
Ultimately, the "Lost Cause" and statements like yours are historical revisionism, nothing more. Did the North do things that should offend our sensibilities as denizens of the 21st Century? Of course. Saying that the Union was "just as bad" as the South, however, ignores established historical facts (not interpretations, facts) and reeks of political correctness taken to the extreme.
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