[Aurelius]

"The idea that any society can subsist without an agreement upon fundamentals is, of course, a delusion."

It is also a delusion to think that "agreement upon fundamentals" can be achieved and maintained through force of arms. The way to produce nations in which a genuine agreement upon fundamentals exists is to keep them small and homogeneous in those respects in which homogeneity is essential to those fundamentals requiring agreement.

As Alexander Stephens wrote, the War of Secession resulted from a disagreement on fundamentals that developed between the South and the North in the decades prior to 1860:

"The conflict in principle arose from different and opposing ideas as to the nature of what is known as the General Government. The contest was between those who held it to be strictly Federal in its character, and those who maintained that it was thoroughly National. It was a strife between the principles of Federation, on the one side, and Centralism, or Consolidation, on the other."

The same conflict remains today, although it is no longer the case that the conflict has a regional character.

[davidjquackenbush]

I think the disagreement had rather more to do with whether the right to self-government can be claimed by those who deny it as the cornerstone of their regime.

[rdf]

The word "Cornerstone" was meant to convey something. I presume you know what. If not, I'll be glad to document it.

Cheers,

Richard F.

[Non-Sequitur]

That's not what he was saying a few years earlier. He was quite specific on what caused the rebellion when speaking in 1861, saying:

The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution -- African slavery as it exists amongst us -- the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution.

[WhiskeyPapa]

"The conflict in principle arose from different and opposing ideas as to the nature of what is known as the General Government. The contest was between those who held it to be strictly Federal in its character, and those who maintained that it was thoroughly National. It was a strife between the principles of Federation, on the one side, and Centralism, or Consolidation, on the other."

Stephens said this after the war. Before the war, he sang a different tune, as you well know.

I came across Stephens' tomb down at Oak Lawn cemetary here in Atlanta a few months ago.

Also on the Oak Lawn property is the house from which Hood watched the Battle of Atlanta.

Walt