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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
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To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (489696)11/9/2003 1:00:00 AM
From: Orcastraiter  Read Replies (2) of 769670
 
That quote was used in the documentary that was shown not too long ago on PBS, entitled "The Civil War" by Ken Burns, I believe.

While the union was formed to provide for a common defense, common taxation, common trade negotiations and the like, not everyone was a federalist.

I think that the states in the south that decided to leave the union did so because they felt they were losing control of their affairs to the union. Much of the economic strength of the country was because of the rich agricultural resources of the south. Cotton was king. And it is true that slavery was a big part of the economy.

But it was the break up of the union that inspired the war. Do you think that people in the north would fight in a war that killed over 600,000 people, where conditions for the troops were tough and primitive for 5 long years to free the slaves of the south? I don't think that this is what motivated these men to fight and die.

The power of the agricultural south did not disappear because slavery ended. There still were men and women willing to work for wages, and such was the case after slavery was abolished. The South did not fail after slavery was ended. It may have reduced the profitability by some measure but it did not end the agricultural empire. What ended the south's economic domination was the industrial revolution.

Orca
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