[DiogenesLamp]

You are a true Diogenes: you’ve shined light and exposed dishonest men.

I do not believe these people are dishonest, I believe they have only been taught certain things, and that they have a few blind spots and biases in their understanding of the relevant history. They want to believe what they were taught is correct, because the alternative is very unsettling. I used to believe as did they, and it took me a long time to realize what I had been told didn't make any sense. But thank you for the compliment.

What you say makes a lot of sense and you’ve convinced me. The blockade makes sense as a way to block cotton and other goods going to Europe.

Makes more sense than ending slavery as the issue. You win on the “follow the money” rule.

It was this map that finally convinced me that something is really wrong with what we were taught. I already knew that the South was producing 3/4ths of the export value from the United States in 1860. This map showed me where the money was going.

Here are the numbers that show who was earning the export income.

BTW, I have no problem letting California set up its own nation, but I expect them to build a high wall to keep citizens out of the United States without visas and other immigration control.

I think it is the coasts that want to secede, the rural counties of California would probably wish to remain as part of the United States. What we have in California is not entirely unlike what was occurring in the South in 1860. Different culture and different economic interests than the rest of the nation.

I'm okay with California leaving, provided we get assurances of necessary defense arrangements for the Pacific, and provided they pay their share of the bills they've ran up by their votes in the Congress for all these years.

[poconopundit]

When I said "dishonest men" I didn't refer to any of the FReepers but the legacy story that's been passed down to us and the actors in their time who started the Civil War in their own self-interest.

The chart and figure are interesting reading indeed.

I found a Wikipedia bio of Thomas Kettell, author of Southern Wealth and Northern Profits. Apparently he was a New Yorker who spoke freely:

In 1856 Kettell authored Southern Wealth and Northern Profits, a lengthy statistical pamphlet about the economies of the Northern and Southern regions. The book received wide acclaim among secessionists in the South and much derision from anti-slavery politicians in the North, even though Kettell intended it as an argument that the two regions were economically dependent upon each other.