[cripplecreek]

You never hear much chatter about how the southern anti secessionists were treated. Sam Houston was a larger than life political figure which probably saved his life but he was forced out of office for refusing to take the oath of the confederacy.

Let me tell you what is coming. After the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives, you may win Southern independence if God be not against you, but I doubt it. I tell you that, while I believe with you in the doctrine of states rights, the North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction, they move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a mighty avalanche; and what I fear is, they will overwhelm the South

-Sam Houston.

That's not to say he agreed with the north (he didn't). He simply saw the secession for the folly it was.

[DariusBane]

Ah, and from that practical perspective I would have been in his camp. The South taking on the North was folly, as the North was industrialized and heavily populated. The South agrarian.

Nothing has really changed from that perspective. To take on the Sea Boards as I understand current political power would be folly for the internal States.

But I am very much against Washington power, pro States rights. But also very realistic that the idea of a voluntary Union was decided in 1860 at the estimated cost of 620,000 dead Americans. That was a full 2% of the population. If we lost 2% today that figure would be around 6,400,000 dead. Don’t forget this is just the dead. Does not count the disfigured, the PTSD induced suicides after the war, the folks who never regain their health, the lost limbs.