If you thought the NYT’s insularity and arrogance is a new thing, check out the “For What Are We Fighting?” article.
Demiurge2: "If you thought the NYT’s insularity and arrogance is a new thing, check out the “For What Are We Fighting?” article."
I read it.
Our FRiend DiogenesLamp has long argued, the reason "Northeastern Power Brokers" waged war against Confederates was to protect their "money flows from Europe" which Confederates threatened to disrupt.
So I've read the editorials here hoping to find some evidence to support DiogenesLamp's historical theory.
No luck so far, but sometimes there is evidence for ideas somewhat related, including in today's editorial.
But it's not "money flows from Europe" they're worried about, rather it's loans from New Yorkers to people around the country.
Those loans the editors tell us total $1 billion which even today is a lot of money, but in 1860 was the equivalent in today's economy to roughly $5 trillion.
Of course, not all that money was loaned to Southerners, but the editors argue that if states are allowed to secede at pleasure and so revoke their debt payments, then all the money loaned by New Yorkers would soon be forfeited.
That's not exactly what DiogenesLamp has argued, but it's getting pretty close, and may well help explain how the Big City Democrat financial interests, so long allied to Southern Democrat slaveholders was flipped to support the Republican defense of Union and eventual opposition to slavery.