I am dyslexic and can not spell well. I have the tendency to drop out words when I type and get when, went, were, and where mixed up. But that doesn't make me stupid. I have a BA in History & Geography. I have studied this conflict for over 30 years. I was the VP of the Austin Civil War Roundtable for 3 years in the early 1990's. I am in the movies Gettysburg, Gods and Generals, American Outlaw, and the last take on the Alamo. Using my brain, and not just what someone told me, what they had been told, that goes all the way back to the winners writing the story (His Story is what you get, not History) and then putting 2 and 2 together I came out with the following. I am not open to discussion, it is my belief, you can have yours, take after all is what this country is suppose to be about.
The American Revolution was started by and over taxation. To say that a war could not be started over such is just stupid. We vote on a regular basis in this country and much of that time we vote on how our pocket book is doing. It is just that simple. We don't leave a large amount of paper behind that when we do so, other then our ballot. We don't go into a 15 minute song and dance over it, we just do it. Period. POCKET BOOK is one of the major factors in all wars. I studied others as well. Why did Napoleon invade Russia in 1812, they were not going along with his economic plan. Second example were money starts a conflict. Germany in WWII is looking for living space, Hell-o Russia, again. With that living space the German economy would boom! The reason for the living space, the economy, stupid. Oops, the Clinton for president group had that on the black board...must not copy without giving credit. What anymore examples then open your eyes. (This is sorta hostel toward two people who just weren't listening and kept telling me I am wrong and I need to believe their way. Which is the Yankee way of thinking.) Sorry, we shot people for telling us we need to think their way. It has been called the War to End All Wars and then WWII. Now, were was I.
In congress were the early great congress men and the Compromises of 1820, 1824, 1832, 1836, 1838, 1840, 1844, 1846, 1848, 1850, 1854, and 1858. They all don't go by the term of Compromise but when you study the Congressional Records you find that is what happened. Now, after many of such, in local areas, the people would have a great parade to show that the system worked yet again and we had lots to be happy about. Then the people would go home an sulk because they didn't get what they wanted.
So, in 1845 the population in the North had reached a point that the House of Reps. was now in their hands. (If there is a solid South, by golly there is a solid North.) In 1850, California comes into the Union as a "Free Soil" state soon to be followed by Oregon. Just California by herself tips the balance in the senate to favor the "Free Soil" states with 2 more votes then the "Slave States." So with little power left in Congress the Southern Congressmen fought a 9 year battle to keep the tariff down to the 25 to 30 % that they would go along with. The South had always approved of such because they wanted to protect U.S. interest. Since the South didn't manufacture much, they import a great deal. It doesn't matter if it is dime items or thousand dollar watches, the idea of having to pay a tariff of 80% would be totally against Southern interest,i.e.; their pocket book. Weather your rich or poor no one, repeat no one wants to pay for something two times, well almost two times! When that tax was paid into the U.S. coffers, the congress would spend it for improvements to the country. One of the first was to support the First National Road. It went from Chicago to Washington, D.C. The only slave or Southern state it helped was Maryland since Washington was surrounded by the state. Railroads were given help to be build so that commerce could move more quickly. Every wonder how the North ended up with all those railroad while the South had so few. (One of the things I noted while reading Yankee journals is the comment on how bad Southern roads were and how it showed the badness of slavery. They don't have any idea that their roads were bought by South tax dollars.)
And don't forget we paid Mexico 15 million twice, for land. The Mexican Cession and then the Gadston(sic) Purchase. The latter for a Southern Railroad route for the Gold out of California to New Orleans and to help the South have some industry. Lincoln's election was telling. His name was not on the ballot of the South, there was no Republican Party in 1860 below the Mason-Dixon Line. Lincoln wins because you get an electoral college vote for every rep you have in the House. Who had the population? The NORTH! Without one Southern or Border State Lincoln wins with 52% of the Electoral College Vote. He gets only 36% of the popular vote. In short, 6 people voted against him out of ten. I'll repeat that, He gets about 4 votes out of 10. And wins! Something wrong there. Yes, the Demos were divided that year which helped a great deal. And it still happens or can happen. If Kerry had won Ohio and Indiana in 2004, he would have been president by carrying the same state Lincoln did in 1860. There is still more people between the Atlantic Ocean, and the Mississippi River, north of the Ohio River then any other place in the country. (Please vote people.)
So, we have loss of political power in Congress, a President that wasn't popular with the people in the South and a large number in the North as well. You can say a feeling of a stolen election. And then there is his platform he ran on with the following:
1. The northern rail road route, not the southern one, for the first trans-cont. rail line. No trains for New Orleans. Wonder why we had cattle drives and no railroads...you got it.
2. The green back dollar. In 1830's there was a bank run in which many people of the South had money in Northern Banks. Overnight they became poor or poorer due to the failure of said banks. Mis-trust or lack of trust in the Banking system of the U.S. led the South believe that hard money was best. Paper is to easy to print. Example, today's president.
3. Homestead Act would open up the land of the West to anyone with some wire and an ax. South believed you should pay for it and ease the tax burden on the South. The South wanted the land for their children as well, and they might even take a slave with them. The North didn't see it that way.
4. Why, they wanted an 80% tariff on a large number of imported items. Many of which the South consumed. That tax would be passed in 1863. (Let's see, we pay into the government 60 -70 million per year and they spend most of it up North. And now they want how much more of our money to spend it where?)
5. Stop the spread of slavery to new lands in the west. It didn't matter that many in the North didn't support the U.S. Mexican War, didn't send troops and therefore didn't have a right (in Southern thinking) to say what happened to the land gained by that war. In the Northern view: We are against the war, but we got this land and those who fought for it,bled for it, if they own a slave, can't have any of it.
All of these are pro-northern planks. There was not one effort to give the South a small slice of the pie at all. Taxes, loss of power, a Compromise system that left no one really happy, Lincoln's election with the Party platform attached, then add to it the slave question.....you get one heck of a war. In fact you could add under the slave thing, just the arguing about slavery as a cause. These people didn't like each other. The North had a "Holier then Thou" attitude of the Roundheads* and the South had the Cavalier* Spirit of "Better then Thou", since that is the two groups of people that settled the two areas of the country. Philosophy brought over on the Mayflower and other sailing ships of the day.
*The two sides of the English Civil War...a true Civil War were two groups fought to control the capital of the country. A revolt is when someone tries to establish their own country. We have had three of them. The 13 colonies, Texas, and the Southern Confederate State are all revolts to establish a new country, none of them are a civil war.
Now let me make this clear, in 1850 the census showed that the slave owners of the South made up 8.7% of the total population of all the slave states. Don't go saying anything about households. They counted the slave as well as any other person which was about 50% of the Southern population. Many people fell for the Yankee propaganda that about 60% of the Southern households involved with slavery. Well, that's right, most had slaves living in them. The other 10% was the slave owner and his overseer's household. In short that was a B.S. lie told because they wanted to prove the South was rotten with that cotton. Those numbers don't change much in 10 years to the 1860's. (Oh, while I am on the subject, even though slavery isn't the good thing you think I am expounding, it isn't, but the system in the U.S. had allowed the African to prosper to where there were ex-slaves who owned slaves and plantations themselves, there were 53,000 "freemen" in Virginia alone. And the population of 500,000 imported into the U.S. had grown to 4 million by 1860. This is one of the few places in the world this has happened. Most of the other places worked the slaves to death. So even with all it's badness, there was one and only one silver lining.) Many Northern states were just as racist as the South. There is no question of this. In fact today there are more race problems in the North then any other part of the union. FBI records on Civil Rights violations show this to be the case.
I have never said that slavery wasn't a cause of the war. I have never said that Taxes alone caused the war. BUT THEY SURE AS HECK HELPED. Now, you can say what ever you want to but not here. I wasn't happy that people kept using this site for this instead of contacting me direct. I left my email address for that. They seemed more bent on putting their view out to you all, instead of us taking it off this web-site hasn't been used to discuss political things. I beg your forgiveness for breaking the peace many of you had here. I am hoping that the people in question will read this and let it go. Or they can still contact me, but not here. If they reply then you know they don't have this site and it's purpose in mind, but their own little self to please. Mostly Yankee I believe trying to cause problems. You have a good day now, ya'll hear. As ever I remain...
Your Obedient Servant,
Bert Hile
acting 1st Sgt.
Company G, 6th Texas Vol. Infantry
Grandbury's Brigade
Cleburne's Division
Hardee's Corps
Army of Tenn.
under the Command of J.E. Johnston
Lt. Gen.