I agree it was the biggest wast of blood this nation allowed, but I disagree that it was because prideful idiots couldn't dialogue.
I think they had been "dialoguing" for decades, and the South just realized there was no further point to it. The taxes were set to make the South pay for the vast bulk of government costs, and the laws were set to funnel virtually all the Southern produced export value back through New York.
The South would never get a sufficient majority in the Congress to fix any of this, and since they didn't want to continue being the milk cow for the Northern elites who would not quit telling them how much they hated them, they saw leaving as their only option.
Unfortunately for them, the powerful Northern elites did not want to relinquish that 230 million per year of Southern wealth flowing through their hands, and they also did not want the South importing European goods to be distributed all along the border and throughout the Mississippi watershed.
The financial ramifications of Southern independence to the Northern "robber barons" was massive, and these were not the sort of men who would be ushered away to the poor house without a fight.
The Civil War was that fight.
I’m not going to disagree at all with the abuse heaped upon Southern farmers, plantation and business owners by Yankee elitists & politicians for decades.
My prideful idiots comment reflects on them as much as it does the chest-beating southern ‘gentlemen’ who refused to even consider any middle ground. It’s almost as if no matter what the discussion would be about that the hatred and contempt was so high on both sides that this war was unavoidable. With politicians on both sides adding fuel to the already heavily kindled fire the result was what it was.
Arrogance, ego and pride cost lives.
Always does.