I saw your first post this topic ,on the Al forum and followed it over here to watch and see what type of discussion occured. I am surprised that there has been so little interest. I was watching TV the other day and there was a listing for a new movie "The Confederate States of America " the info line said just what you have postulated here : What would of happened if the South had WON! I was so excited to see this thought provoking docudrama. But in my hast I failed to see that the director was the one and only Spike Lee.It was stupid,sad,ignorant,cheesy,predictable,intellectually bankrupt and occationally funny. It was the opposite of what things would be like in my humble opinion. But it does make your point of .....'What if ' one of considerable interest. It also points out it would be a task best reserved for intellectual heavy weights. In fact it would be a great book and yes movie if real thought would be put it to it.The question is really the same one we struggle with today,the same one they fought over in Philly back in 1776 and of course in my mind what the War of Southern Independance was all about :Big Government vs Smsll Government. Jefferson vs.Hamilton. Whigs vs. Torries. Nancy Pelosey/Obama vs Newt/congressioal Republicans. Government is a nessasary evil of civilization but it should be feared and it should be limited. We are the ones who should allow government to do some limited things NOT government allowing us to do things. For the most part this southern view was very well represented in the Constiution. Lincoln was to change that.Just today Obama was lamenting the fact that the Constiution is a document that limits what the government can DO TO YOU and does not have provisions for what it can DO FOR YOU . And because of that, it is harder to get a "redistribution of the wealth" agenda going in the U S of A today.The Courts as crazy as they are won't go that far. So he came to the conculsion that ,that must be done by the excutive and legislative branches working together. And oh my God they may get their chance. Over the years since Lincoln changed the course of things, what the government SHOULD DO for you has changed dramaticaly.In 1840 plus or minus it was all about the rail roads, should the government get in bed with and in the pockets with private enerprise in RR building. Today it is about providing you equal success WITH OUT equal effort. So those are the two points on the graph we must plot....Government should not even participate in spending money on projects like roads etc.(internal improvements they called them ) to........government takes what it wants, from who it wants, to give it to whom it wants (even to people of OTHER countries.)just to be fair.......or neighborly per Obama...........or patriotic per Biden. So from here we must factor in where the alteration ,of that line of progress towards an increase government interference, would place us today. But I maybe way off base what say ye ?