 By David G. Hanger May 09, 2009
In 1861 a total of eleven states seceded from the Union by referendum. Very strong secession movements resulted in the creation of rump secession governments in both Missouri and Kentucky. Strong secession movements occurred in both Maryland and Delaware as well. The states of Maryland, Missouri, and Kentucky provided organized combat units to the Confederacy, and at the Battle of Front Royal in late May 1862 the 1st Maryland Infantry, U.S.A. engaged the 1st Maryland Infantry, C.S.A. in the action that began the battle. The key issue that caused secession was economic. King Cotton ruled in 1860, and the textile mills of New England, Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands were the primary beneficiaries (and colluders). The issue was property rights, for with the emergence of a very different Republican Party certain Southern rights to property were suddenly being seriously challenged. In 1860 the collective value of Southern holdings of black slaves exceeded the value of the land by a considerable margin, thus freeing or manumitting the slaves was perceived by them as effective impoverishment. So the South seceded, and the North went to war. Only black people were enslaved. White people, brown people, whether Hispanic, Indian, or Oriental, were not enslaved. A black person had to carry his documents of maunumission (i.e. that his master had given him his freedom) with him at all times, or face the prospect of being tossed back into slavery without legal recourse. Slavery is as disgusting as it gets, Eileen, but North American slavery was exclusively limited to black Africans, thereby combining racism and slavery in the basest stew known to man. In this country the issues of secession and racism are inseparable. The South seceded because its primary wealth, its primary property, was enslaved black people. If you call for secession, you are a racist, period. Secession is racist by definition in this country. Duly note that Rick Perry is a governor of a southern state, in his case a very unpopular Governor who is pandering for votes in his own party, thus when he calls for secession, he is by definition a "southern cracker," i.e. a white southerner of racist persuasion. In the spring of 1865 the American Civil War ended with at least 625,000 young American men buried in the ground, a rather costly circle jerk. The direct and indirect civilian casualties are estimated at 50,000 to 150,000, but certain historians assert the high number should at least be doubled. The North won the war, but did not do so well with the peace. Racism persists. Secession is also treason, Eileen, of the highest sort. The blood of 625,000 young American men, a greater loss than that incurred in all our other wars combined, is the contract language that puts the stamp on that. Once in, you're in; there is no getting out, an issue decided by blood. Secession, finally, is as un-American as it gets. You got the crap beat out of you in the national elections because your policies, your people, and your philosophies were rejected by the majority of the citizens of this country. That's how America works, Eileen. Periodically we get to fire the jerks if we don't like what they've been doing. Your party has been out of power for less than four months, and already your pathetic whining is all about secession and the civil war apparently you all want. I've been around a long time, Eileen. I've seen the "Impeach Earl Warren" signs. Before JFK got shot I listened to plenty of southern racists who called for just that. Lynchings, dogs, all of these have happened while I was living down south. All kinds of racist intimidation and intolerance. But never, never, have I heard calls for secession when a Democrat was elected President, not until this black Democrat who is now President. So please, Eileen, quit denying the fundamental racism that you all are spewing when you call for secession. If you are not willing to except the will of the people as expressed by their collective vote, then you don't really believe in American values, do you? Calling for secession and civil war because you lost an election is pathetic. So just go. Secede on your own, and take off. Paraguay, Guatemala, Bolivia, you might find what you're looking for somewhere down there. I hear the death squads are operating quite effectively in Guatemala, so rather than trying to create death squads here, why don't you go where they have some already. Those are places where people who disagree with you get conveniently dead, Eileen. Here they get elected. David G. Hanger Received May 09, 2008 - Published May 09, 2009
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