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"Mechanisms"? Sorry..............but I don't get it. What does "mechanisms" have to do with it? We're discussing motivations here. Are you suggesting that the Federal Government in no way attempted to dictate to the Southern States or otherwise interfere with what THEY saw as their conduct of commerce?

You don't seem very familiar with the history.

Eleven of the first 15 presidents were southerners. The most invasive federal law BY FAR -- the one that made the biggest mockery of states rights was the Fugitive Slave Act. It nullified the personal liberty laws of the northern states and I believe it required unwilling persons to assist in capturing escaped slaves by drafting them into posses to assist in recapturing these slaves .

So much for states rights.

Not only that, but southerners were able to dictate the tariff rates. They were, as Alexander Stephens said, "exactly" what southern votes made them. And they were lower in 1860 than they had been in 40 years. These are facts. They are verifiable.

Now, when you consider that the federal government was funded almost entirely by the tariff, it was southerners who were driving these events, not northerners.

I haven't yet mentioned the Dredd Scott decision. This very pro-southern decision that said that black men had no rights that whites were bound to accept, was made in the face of the fact that 5 states allowed blacks to vote. I quoted the record-- a statement of Governor Pickens of South Carolina. You need to find some support for your position in the record. But it's not there.

The record is plain. You don't seem very familiar with it.

By "mechanisms" I meant for you to expound on how the federal government was interfering with the rights of southerners. The agencies I listed, ATF, IRS, BLM -- they didn't exist. Neither did Social Security, AFDC, etc. In fact, the feds had the most tiny influence on the lives of the people of the day. That was true before the war and it was true after the war for decades.

Walt

You fail to convince. Now..................now, you're taking the position that it was the Southern states that actually dictated to the North. This is utter nonsense. Having a President from the South doesn't equal "Southern" dictatorship of some sort. You still fall into the trap of picking and choosing isolated examples that do not, in any way, represent the "whole" of the nature of our country in the years leading up to the War. The North clearly dominated in terms of commerce / industry and population.

One thing here is obvious: You have spent a lot of time digging about in an attempt to prove YOUR point, not necessarily attempting to learn the whole story. I do know a bit about Southern history, for I have lived in practically every state in the southern U.S. and have taken a little time to learn something about each one........including its history. I do not claim in any way to be an expert on such things, but I DO know an agenda when I see one. Check your assumptions, my friend. They're not selling here.

I'm a little torn between making this a private post but I guess I'll do it this way, .. I seriously can't help wondering from whence your vociferous animosity toward the South comes. Are you a radicalized Black? Did you lose family members in the Union army?

I've seen your posts on the subject many times and perhaps this has been asked before, but I'd like you to address it.

I can't help wondering (in these perilous times) why folks don't find more appropriate targets for their hate (too strong?). I offer the Islamists, for one.