[GOPcapitalist]

THAT statement of mine neither indicates, suggests, or says that the protectionist movement was not a cause.

Yes it does, Walt. You made the statement to imply the mistaken notion that even the south said protectionism was not the cause on the grounds that they said free trade had ruled the day.

As "Yankhater" indicated, tariffs are not in the set of issues that drive people to the barricades.

Frederic Bastiat famously held otherwise. "If goods do not cross borders, armies will."

Tariffs are the issue the "Lost Cause" apologists fastened on after the war.

Senator Wigfall's comments, in which he cites the tax issue directly and then concludes the inevitability of secession, indicate the issue was taken up several months before the war began. Try again.

[4CJ]

I agree. Numerous yankee and editors advocated that the South should not be held in a union by force, only to quickly change their mind once they understood that the northern economy would be devastated by the departure of all that money. If the south truly contributed so little, and was such a leech as some opine, why on earth would the yankees want the South to stay? They yankees invaded a sovereign nation for plunder, pure and simple.