[Non-Sequitur]

Read the Confederate Constitution.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises for revenue, necessary to pay the debts, provide for the common defense, and carry on the Government of the Confederate States..." Big deal. My question is where from? You take a newspaper editorial and make an economy out of it. If all the gloom and doom that poured out of the New York Times editorial pages came true we would have been destroyed years ago. All I'm asking is for you to flesh your position out somewhat. Fess up. The whole free trade south never occured to any of the southern leadership at the time, did it? They would have enacted duties and tariffs and taxes, the same as the Federal government would have. They would have had to in order to pay for the army they authorized and all the infrastructure necessary for a government. The south was decades away from being a serious economic threat to the North.

[Aurelius]

As usual, you're wrong. The major inducement to the northern business community to support Lincoln's illegitimate war was the fear that with the excellent port of New Orleans, access to the center of the country via the Mississippi River, and a free trade policy, the South could quickly attract much of the international trade that up to then flowed to the northeast coast.

[PeaRidge]

You take a newspaper editorial and make an economy out of it. If all the gloom and doom that poured out of the New York Times editorial pages came true we would have been destroyed years ago.

Well, I am not sure what newspaper report you are discussing, but you are aware that after secession, most articles were concilatory. But after the Confederacy announced its low tariff, all the newspapers, especially the ones in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia became hostile to the South, calling for war.

It is not my opinion, but theirs, that the low tariff of the South was a threat. That is not being said in 2001, but 1861.

I would tend to believe the people and their actions of the time

[PeaRidge]

The whole free trade south never occured to any of the southern leadership at the time, did it? They would have enacted duties and tariffs and taxes, the same as the Federal government would have.

Well, actually it did. Read the Confederate Constitution again. They were very much aware of free trade.

They enacted some taxiation, but the South was still motivated by individual responsibility and initiative. Therefore, central taxiation was against their philosophy.

In order to accomodate deep draft ocean going trade vessels, Charleston initiated a major dredging project that culminated in 1860. Who do you think paid for this?

[PeaRidge]

Now, the question, not speculation please, is who was lending this money to the Treasury?

Please answer the question.