[Non-Sequitur]

The WBTS was over a debt?

No, it was over the illegal secession of the southern states. For someone to believe that the unilateral secession of the southern states was legal then they would have to believe that walking away from the debt was legal and the appropriation of federal property was legal. In short, that only the southern states had Constitutional protections and the remaining states had none.

[groanup]

How do you "break the bonds" as is reiterated constantly in the founders' literature and in the D of I and was the subject of Lincoln's 1948 speech? Do you repay your portion of the debt in the process?

[stand watie]

actually, it was over a central government which southerners RIGHTLY believed was NOT acting in their informed self-interest, was becoming ever more intrusive & which they again RIGHTLY believed was likely to become dictatorial. southerners simply wanted FREEDOM to go their own way.

for the unionists it was ONLY about preventing secession & preventing the south from achieving LIBERTY.

that was the ONLY real issue.

free dixie,sw