[WhiskeyPapa]

The reasons to seek independence are irrelevant, it is the Right of the people to alter or abolish is what matters. If the British colonies had the Right, then the 13 Southern States did also.

The so-called seceded states may have had a natural right to break the Union. They had no rights under U.S. law to do so.

Even their natural right is suspect, if it takes a "long train of abuses" as Jefferson suggested in the D of I. There was no long train of abuses prior to 1860. Southerners had controlled the federal government for decades.

The source of their distress was an election that didn't go their way.

Walt

[lentulusgracchus]

There was no long train of abuses prior to 1860. Southerners had controlled the federal government for decades.

The "long train of abuses" to which Jefferson referred went back only to the French and Indian War, and the taxes that were levied to pay for it -- 13 years, count 'em, from the Peace of Paris that ended that war in 1763, until independence was declared in 1776.

The concatenation of abuses and discontent the South had put up with went back to the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Tariff of 1824 -- 40 years.

No, Walt, as usual it's your sweeping generalizations that are off-base. Particularly when you combine them with graceless slurs against the characters of the men you disagree with and pretend to despise. You couldn't look down at Alexander Stephens, Judah Benjamin, and Bobby Lee unless you stood on your head.

[lentulusgracchus]

The source of their distress was an election that didn't go their way.

The source of their distress was people like you.