On Reconciliation

 

 

It is said that at the negotiations at Appomattox Courthouse Lee and Grant were both frank and civil during the course of discussing the surrender of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Afterwards, Grant sent food to Lee to feed his (and, then, their) nation's former enemy soldiers. Celebrations for Grant's soldiers came only later not while Lee's soldiers remained present. Again, in ending active hostilities, the first step towards national reconciliation was frank and civil discourse.

I do not think our present and future is or will be as difficult as was Grant and Lee's. But we too have to think about national reconciliation. It seems to me that the first steps in that direction involve frank and civil discussion, absent hyperbole, and absent name calling. If federal judges, state judges, and legal academics are not up to that task, then that is just another institutional and cultural problem crying out for reform and renewal.

Likewise, our domestic law schools are supported by taxes, tuition, and donations. If universities and academics only further burden American society by casting aside our free speech traditions and actively engage in just another front in our culture wars, then wider society might very well choose to withhold support. Perhaps this process has already begun?

---

An extract from the conclusion of: Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘Some Personal Reflections on the Recent Litigation involving Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment,’ 94(6) Miss. L.J. 1375, 1401–1402 (May 2025) (footnotes omitted), <http://ssrn.com/abstract=5241140>, <https://mississippilawjournal.org/journal-content/some-personal-reflections-on-the-recent-litigation-involving-section-three-of-the-fourteenth-amendment/>; 

Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘On Reconciliation,’ New Reform Club (Sept. 13, 2025, 4:35 PM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2025/09/on-reconciliation.html>;