George, I was speaking more in the context of 1848 than 1861. Having ancestors from NC and GA, I know how they could be about someone "minding their business". However if you want to speak of Aristocrats leading a Government, one has to only think of South Carolina, where large planter families, all with family ties controlled the judiciary , legislative and executive branches from the start of the colony to the war. Not a great deal of say for Joe Lunchbox in that neck of the woods.

Cump.