Re: Personality Politics

[Guest guest]

" As I come up with more interesting things I will post them. Its going

to take a while though because even though it is an interesting book,

there is a lot of detail and information, so I have to read more slowly

that usual. "

Always useful. And I happen to agree with pretty much everything you

have stated in your commentary and summary.

Administrator

[Guest guest]

Thanks.

Its really the same old case of nothing new under the sun. The South did have legitimate economic and political grievances. Tariffs and taxes typically favored the North and a lot of tax money was taken from the South to fund Northern infrastructure expansion and others things, this under the "General Welfare" clause of the US Constitution. Tariffs also favored the industrial North, protectionism against foreign industrial competition, and so forth. The Southerners also believed that the North was losing sight of the intent of the Constitution because of all of the spending, subsidies, flirtations with communism (Communist Manifesto written in 1848), socialism and atheism, etc. Mostly they objected to the growing size, reach and cost of the Federal Government.

Unfortunately, they shot themselves in the foot, multiple times.

1) They didn't have a clear idea of the goals for the revolution, which indeed many did not consider a revolution, because for the above mentioned reasons they thought the northerners were the revolutionaries. The CSA Constitution was good, but it had flaws.

2) The flaws of the system could have been overcome, but they selected bad people to run the new Government. Most of the senior department heads had little or no experience in their field, some were very abrasive and rude and thus unable to get people to cooperate, many were timid and even uncertain they did the right thing with secession. The Vice President of the CSA himself did not support secession.

3) The government didn't do necessary things like increasing supply of staple good (foodstuffs, clothing, etc.) by taxes to move away from King Cotton, which was already over produced and saturated the market. Because of this, food became harder to acquire, particularly since the border states like Kentucky and Missouri were major farming areas and were lost early on to the Confederacy. Heavy taxes were not imposed early on to fund the military build up and sustain it.

4) The Planters, many of whom were behind the secession movement, balked at actually supporting it when the crisis came. They tried to use the Secession to cement the status quo and their personal power and lifestyle, even though they were minority produces. Small farmers actually produced far more than the planters did. However, when they were called upon, finally, to pay taxes to support the army and thus the system they brought about, they balked.

5) Industrialization had been fought for decades before the war. Even the establishment of textile mills, which would have allowed cotton to be milled into cloth domestically thus increasing its sale value overseas, was fought. Some wanted tariffs in the CSA to encourage development of Southern industry. Once such proponent was Gregg. He was a textile mill owner who actually dared to use free white labor instead of slaves. That put him at odds with Secretary of the Treasury Memminger because he, like others, feared that such a labor force would be fertile grounds for abolitionist recruiting, which is odd since the abolition movement was already very strong in the South anyway. This put them at a disadvantage against the Industrial North, but not an overwhelming one.

How does this relate to today? Very simply. We seem to have lost our understanding of the Constitution and what government is supposed to be and do. Officials, appointed and elected, don't have a clue as to how the economy works or about anything but running for office. I fault that the vast majority of them are lawyers and not productive members of society, the CSA suffered from the same problem. Government policy has allowed much manufacturing to go overseas, like a reverse tariff, and labor costs are being held down by illegal immigrants, which serves the function of slavery in terms of lower end wages in the CSA. There is an elite class that has arranged thing so that system benefits them. They reap a profit while the economy crumbles and still get a bailout that makes them richer still. The Finance Industry is the King Cotton of today. Cotton was about 10% of the South's economy in 1860, but the finance industry was about 20% of our economy. When cotton couldn't be exported because of the blockade, the economy was in trouble. Many in the South assumed that cotton was so vital that France and England would rush their navies to their aid and sweep away the Union Navy. Didn't happen. They just went elsewhere, Egypt mainly, for their cotton. Just like today, the financiers thought they were too big to fail and that foreigners would prop us up. Isn't really happening. Investors are looking elsewhere and the taps are being closed.

Interesting how similar it all is.

In a message dated 10/10/2008 5:12:41 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, no_reply writes:

Always useful. And I happen to agree with pretty much everything you have stated in your commentary and summary.AdministratorNew MapQuest Local shows what's happening at your destination. Dining, Movies, Events, News more. Try it out!