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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.

But if your contentions are true then that means the south was still holding a grudge over legislation which had long since been done away with. The Missouri Compromise had been overturned by the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 which made the expansion of slavery possible, leaving the issue up to the people of the territories themselves. Shades of State's rights. As for the tariffs of 1824 and later, the tariff had been falling all through the decade of the 1850's until, as Alexander Stephens pointed out in 1860, "they were made just as low as Southern men asked them to be, and those are the rates they are now at."

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.

Please.

Tariffs were lower in 1860 than they had been in 40 years.

Can you gainsay Governor Pickens?

"We have the Executive with us, and the Senate & in all probability the H.R. too. Besides we have repealed the Missouri line & the Supreme Court in a decision of great power, has declared it, & all kindred measures on the part of the Federal Govt. unconstitutional null & void. So, that before our enemies can reach us, they must first break down the Supreme Court - change the Senate & seize the Executive & by an open appeal to Revolution, restore the Missouri line, repeal the Fugitive slave law & change the whole governt. As long as the Govt. is on our side I am for sustaining it, & using its power for our benefit, & placing the screws upon the throats of our opponents".

- Francis W. Pickens, June,1857

Yours is revision. Pickens is straight from the horse's mouth, or perhaps another orifice.

Walt

You couldn't look down at Alexander Stephens, Judah Benjamin, and Bobby Lee unless you stood on your head.

Oh yes I can.

I took an oath to the Constitution, and I haven't broken it.

Walt