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We Yankees in Maine are polite; it's just those people in Massachusetts and New York who ruin it for everyone else.

Seriously, let's look at counter-factual history: what if the Southern states had successfully seceded. The North would have continued rapid industrialization and expansion into the Western states (with all their mineral wealth); the South would have remained largely agricultural. Result: one region grows wealthy, while another not only has much slower growth, but also has a big racial problem that still needs to be resolved. (There are other sources of cotton, as the British found with India during the Civil War). Then, in the next century, even with high rates of immigration, the United States (excluding the South) may not have had enough manpower to fight two World Wars and finish them as quickly as she did--which would greatly change world history--not to mention the increased difficulty of facing down the damn, dirty Communists during the Cold War.

Worst of all, we may have had no peanut butter (without the contributions of freed slave George Washington Carver). All in all, the alternatives to not fighting the Civil War could have been far worse.

smug, self-satisfied, egotistical, and totally ensconced within a sense of their own perfect rightness in all things and on all issues

These things are in the eye of the beholder. The more confident or assertive anyone is about their case, the more likely it is that those who disagree or are uncertain will pick up on the smugness and self-satisfaction. Smugness, arrogance or self-satisfaction can't be identified permanently with one cause or another, but with some supporters of this or that cause or position. Convinced confederatists can be as smug or egotistical as their opponents or detracters.

To me, this litany -- "smug, self-satisfied, egotistical, and totally ensconced within a sense of their own perfect rightness in all things and on all issues" -- perfectly describes Clyde Wilson, or most of the contributors to lewrockwell.com, especially the idiot who writes the headings and subtitles for the articles. We all have vulnerabilities and the person who deliberately treads on them is bound to provoke our resistance. A true reading of John Winthrop or Jonathan Edwards would reveal more about the "Yankee" than Massachusetts's version of Edwards or Hollings or Talmadge or Illinois's gift to Arkansas and New York.

There doesn't seem to be much difference between Benson and those he attacks. Certainly Benson reveals himself to be as smug and as arrogant as anyone who criticized him when he writes:

There is no place in the Yankee mindset for grace, courtesy, compassion, consideration of the feelings of others, or for any of those Scriptural virtues that have graced and improved our civilization in the past. The Yankee knows only complete self-righteousness and, in that self-righteousness he exhibits a certain perverse pleasure in seeking to trample on the feelings of those who dare to disagree with his elevated opinions. In most cases, the Yankee understanding of accurate history is about an inch deep, and therefore, he becomes little more than a 'useful idiot' that the cultural Marxist professor that 'educated' him can turn loose on the world for the total benefit of the New World Order.

The chatter about the evil Yankee seems to come more out of Fidel Castro than anyone else. The identification of "those Scriptural virtues that have graced and improved our civilization in the past" with his own regional tradition seems to be the pettiest of sectional egotisms. North and South both have their crosses to bear. It's best to get beyond endless, stupid recriminations and devote ourselves to similar private and common public ventures. Maybe the true "scriptural virtue" consists in admitting that all sections or sides or individuals may fall into vices or rise above them.

Declaration of Southern Cultural Independence

We, as citizens of the sovereign States of the South, proclaim before Almighty God and before all nations of the earth, that we are a separate and distinct people, with an honourable heritage and culture worthy of protection and preservation. Standing in the very place where our President Jefferson Davis stood in 1861, we declare that Southerners are entitled, like all peoples, to self-determination. Looking ahead to the time when political self-determination is a reality, we hereby pledge ourselves to the preservation of our culture in preparation for, and in the fervent hope of, the coming of that day.

To this end, we exhort all Southerners to abjure the realm of the American Empire that now threatens the liberties of our families and communities, and of the corrupt and sterile national culture that pervades this land. The national culture of the United States is violent and profane, coarse and rude, cynical and deviant, and repugnant to the Southern people and to every people with authentic Christian sensibilities. Purveyors of the national culture have everywhere lowered standards of morality and debased human dignity. They have appealed to mankind's worst impulses through profanity and obscenity in the arts and literature; they have depicted decadence and debauchery as normal and desirable; they have distorted Southern symbols and denied our right to interpret or display those symbols; they have assumed the authority of parents in the areas of religion and education; they thus have driven a wedge between the generations; they have prostituted all areas of thought and learning for market share; they have demonised Southern heroes and canonised tyrants and war criminals; they have distorted Southern history to advance their ideas of social justice; they thus have driven a wedge between the races and regions; they have destroyed hope; they have spread despair; they have called good evil and evil good; they have everywhere substituted the opinions of men for the decrees of God.

We, as Southerners, will, as far as possible, decline to participate in this alien, national culture. Rather, we shall seek to defend and perpetuate our noble heritage and be of service to our people. In doing so, we will emulate our great heroes--Washington, Jefferson, Henry, Calhoun, Davis, Lee, and Jackson, among others. In an attempt to preserve Southern language, speech, manners, music, literature, tradition, thought, custom, and faith, we pledge to cooperate economically to build and sustain our separate educational and cultural institutions. We intend regional and local action; pledging blood, treasure, and sacred honour, we shall starve the national malignance and nourish the goodness close at hand.

Our cultural inheritance is not based upon the abstract slogans, armed doctrines, and sanctified greed that characterizes the present American regime. Instead, it is based on the permanent things that order and sustain life: faith, family, tradition, community, and private property; loyalty, courage, and honour. Cut off from these permanent things, the South will become only a point on the compass, and our descendants will justifiably curse us for the destruction of their noble heritage.

To our Southern forebears the triune God gave the inspiration and wisdom to create a confederated, constitutional republic based on the principle of local self-government and sustained by a vibrant and vital cultural heritage. We consider our heritage a sublime and unmerited blessing and we cherish it. Today it is threatened as never before by the godless national culture of death, supported by an overbearing government that acknowledges no limits to its power.

We reaffirm the cultural inheritance of our honourable forefathers and declare to the world our intention to defend and preserve it. The preservation of historic cultures--especially those that establish liberty--has never been cheap or easy. We hereby proclaim to the world that the struggle to protect and advance our Southern cultural heritage begins in earnest today...Henceforth, we shall stand steadfast in defense of our inheritance as free men and women of the South, and we welcome all who share our principles to stand with us.

As witness to our intent, we affix our signatures to this Declaration of Southern Cultural Independence...invoking the blessings of our Lord, Jesus Christ, on a just cause.