I prefer the term copperhead.
With all due respect, it’s spelled “Pittsburgh”. ;-)
Mother was born in Scranton (hometown of Biden)
Spent several years after college living in Carlisle
Interesting points. I knew Pres. Buchanan retired to Pennsylvania, but the other points were new to me.
Cotton became king because of the cotton gin, invented by Eli Whitney. The first fruits of the industrial revolution had the effect of making an agricultural commodity more valuable. That one man’s productive genius made slavery more productive, just as other men made it more productive with the invention of the Spinning Jenny, automated looms, knitting machines, and even sewing machines.
More recently, the productivity of movies and television cause millions of dollars to flow to Hollywood, due largely to inventions regarding efficient production and distribution. Today’s slavers of the Democratic Party seek to use those technical innovations to promote government institutions that restrict liberty, just as the former slavers sought to protect their favorite institution.
I think, seriously, this still stems from the Van Buren-emplaced party system, created in the 1820s with the modern Dem Party, that sought to keep slavery (and, today, truly contentious debates) out of the national dialogue so as to prevent a civil war. Van Buren concluded that no southerner could again win the presidency because of the taint of slavery-—but no northern abolitionist/anti-slave politician could win either. Therefore, he needed a “northern man of southern principles” (i.e., someone who wouldn’t interfere with slavery) or a westerner (westerners were viewed as not “having a position” on slavery).
So, did it work? You betcha, in a sense. From 1828 to 1860, EVERY candidate was either a “northern man of southern principles” who would not discuss slavery or a westerner (Jackson, VB himself, Harrison-—Tyler as veep who comes in due to Harrison’s death doesn’t count, but he was a southern slaveholder-—Polk, Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan). But when you finally get Lincoln, a “northern man of NORTHERN principles,” you get a war. The south perceives that the North will try to legislate against slavery and property rights in slaves (the truly big category).
Well, consider today: why is it we can’t get a “conservative?” The only real conservatives of the 20th century were, arguably Harding, Coolidge, and Reagan. Harding won because Wilson so badly bungled the wartime financing that we were in a deep recession; Coolidge was another veep who then won re-election on his own-—something only Truman and LBJ matched-—and Reagan was . . . a “westerner” who nevertheless had (pardon the expression) “northern principles.” By that I mean, he actually stood for a principle, not just “let’s all get along.” (I certainly don’t mean Reagan had anything in common with today’s RINO NE Republicans).
What does this tell us? Well, possibly that even 180 years later, we are still afraid to debate “elephants in the room,” whether it is slavery, entitlements, debt, or immigration. That “northern men of southern principles” (i.e., Romney, Clinton-—in essence, politically, a “northern man of southern principles”-—Bush, ditto but to a much lesser extent) are in demand because American simply want to avoid the very difficult and occasionally bloody results of an open debate over important stuff.