[BroJoeK]

rockrr: "That makes this a red-letter day I suppose ;-)"

By the way, for everyone who suggested additions to my list of only Ten Neo-Confederate Myths +1, I agree, and this thread has provided many new ones.

But it struck me yesterday that some of these additional myths should fall into categories of "theme and variations".
Some are not really so much different myths, as they are different ways of expressing the same myth.

Consider an example: Myth #1 says, "Secession was not all about slavery".
Well, you can think of that as a category of myths and then list out a whole group of "sub-myths" under it, such as:

1. High tariffs caused secession.
   
2. Mississippi river tolls caused secession.
   
3. New England "haughty bastards" or more generally "Yankee arrogance" caused secession.
   
4. Lincoln tried to put Americans on a "gubmint plantation" and Confederates had to resist being made "slaves" -- which does sort of sound like "slavery" was the reason, just different "slaves".

We could do the same with Myth #3: "A 'right of secession' is guaranteed by the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution"

The list of other "guarantees" might include:

1. "natural law"
   
2. "inherent right"
   
3. a quote from Patrick Henry
   
4. comparisons of 1861 secessionists to 1776 Founding Fathers.

So, if you ever see this list again, it will probably be in a more generalized form, showing variations of arguments under their respective categories.

Anyway, thanks again for all your input!

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

What I've come to realize over years of sparring with the Lost Causers here on FR is that they have a sort of magical thinking. "If only the south had been allowed to secede, everything would be right in my world. The slaves would have been freed immediately and there would be no problem with race relations. The government would not have gotten out of control. Children would listen to their parents better and it would rain gumdrops." Basically everything bad that they see they believe would be better "if only..."

But secession itself is the coward's way out. The genius of the Constitution is that it allows for it's own modification. Get two-thirds of the state legislatures to call a convention. Get three-fourths of the states to ratify what that convention proposes. You can got in and propose an amendment that the Constitution is now null and void and all the states are on their own if you want.

But the secessionist of 1861 or the Lost Causer of today realizes that's hard work, and they don't want to do the hard work of winning a supermajority to their side. They'd rather invoke some magical principle that they can simply blink their eyes three times and suddenly they're in a different country, exempt from all laws.