To make this clear, these "moneyed class" were a powerful minority. They were also the first to disapeer from the scene as the war got close, or ended up on the trash heap of failed leaders, leaving the majority in the "deep south states" to make the same "principled decision"[s] as their brethren in the upper Southern states. Even after great losses the "principled" ones would not give up, even when they knew they could not win, even when the odds were 20 to 1 they kept fighting. Why? Certainly not for the "manipulative moneyed class" with "alternatives" to secession. They would rather die for something they had already lost, the right to be left alone.
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David Upton