[razorbak]

The South had become too dependent on slavery. I say that as an urepentant Southerner. Slavery would have eventually ended, but it has forever tarnished the South's claims of the moral high ground. And yes I am fully aware of the absolute duplicity, cynicism and hypocrisy of the exploitation of the issue by many Northerners with ulterior motives. The shame of it is that had the South been successful, one positive by-product would be a weaker central government, and the country would not be as far down the road toward socialism and the radical liberal agenda that has been so efficiently applied by corrupt national courts and politicians. This nation has paid a bitter price for slavery, and continues to today with the rampant welfare system and anti-constitutional minority voting block.

[lentulusgracchus]

This nation has paid a bitter price for slavery, and continues to today with the rampant welfare system and anti-constitutional minority voting block.

If there'd been no slavery at all in the South, there would still have been a civil war. The Northern industrialists and old Whigs were determined to wrest control of the national agenda away from the South permanently, and they'd have picked a fight over something -- the Morrill Tariff, for instance.

In the 1830's the issue had been Nullification, which was provoked by the Tariff of Abominations.

The North was looking for a way to knock the South out of the box permanently. That's what civil wars are made of.