How would that have posed a threat?
The balance of power in Congress would have shifted dramatically to the North.
Without the southern states that would be pretty much a given.
Only in Haiti and the US was the end of slavery accompanied by a bloodbath.
Only in the U.S. was one section of the country willing to go to war to protect slavery.
“That Confederacy would have inconvenienced Mississippi River traffic but would have posed no other threat than perhaps an economic one of lower tariffs.”
“How would that have posed a threat?”
Before 1803 the Spanish used to restrict Mississippi river trade when they controlled New Orleans. Northern traders using the Ohio and Mississippi were always very concerned about being able to freely access New Orleans and the gulf.
Lower tariffs in the South would have drawn trade away from northern ports, a real concern at a time when tariffs funded the government.
“The balance of power in Congress would have shifted dramatically to the North.”
“Without the southern states that would be pretty much a given.”
That was my point. With seven southern states gone abolition would have passed easily in 1861. The North would have rid itself of the Fugitive Slave Act. The Underground Railway would
“Only in the U.S. was one section of the country willing to go to war to protect slavery.”
That must be why they called up 75,000 troops with the goal of forcing the North into the Confederacy.