The root of thesecession movement was not about taxes and tariffs. It was slavery. No other issue in US history was as inflammatory as slavery, even polygamy didn’t come close. Sure, I’m gonna go to my pro-tariff neighbors house and butcher him and his sons with home made swords. Good grief.
Just like the cause of the revolution wasn’t tea, the cause of the war of Southern independence was not slavery.
Well that *IS* the constant propaganda, and people look around for evidence to support it. They ususually settle on the 3 or 4 secession statements made by a few of the minor states, and ignore the fact the other 7 states did not make such statements.
They also ignore the fact the Northern dominated congress voted *FOR* the Corwin amendment which made slavery permanently legal in the United States.
For some reason, the Southern states didn't seem to care that the Northern states voted for permanent slavery in the United States, so this would imply that "slavery" wasn't really the issue that was motivating them to escape from the North.
On the other hand, it is now obvious that becoming independent would gain the Southern states an immediate 65 Million dollars per year in money pumped into their economy rather than going to Washington DC. Additionally, they would get out from under the laws that required them to use Northern shipping to ship their products to Europe. They would also get out from laws that required them to buy Northern products, or pay hefty penalties for buying the better quality European products.
All in all, there was approximately a 700 million dollar per year benefit for them to leave the Union, and say what you want, I think most people vote their wallet.
Why would any of them not want an additional 700 million per year coming into their pockets?