"Secession may have been wrong in the abstract, and has been tried and settled by the arbitrament of the sword and bayonet, but I am as firm in my convictions today of the right of secession as I was in 1861. The south is our country, the North is the country of those who live there. We are an agricultural people; they are a manufacturing people. They are the descendent's of the good Puritan Plymouth Rock stock, and we of the South from the proud and aristocratic stock of Cavaliers. We believe in the doctrine of States Rights and they in the doctrine of centralization.
----We only fought for our State rights, they for Union and power.
Sam Watkins, Pvt. CSA 1882
Company Aytch
Or, A Sideshow of the Big Show
by Sam Watkins
Plumb Books
There are those who would disagree.
"Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have in a common cause fought and triumphed together; the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels, and joint efforts of common dangers, sufferings, and successes." -- George Washington
Great post (and a great book), smug.