Santayana said "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
I hope my readers will discuss this - please ask questions and make comments. This is far too serious to just read and say nothing.
I grew up in the Northeast, and attended public schools. I graduated 12th in my class and was expected to attend college and become something. I became a father shortly after graduating and by God's providence I attended college later in life. My undergraduate degree comes from a Southern Christian university. The schools of thought between these two regions are vastly different. This is dangerous to those who will not explore what they are told or taught because much is learned from the other perspective.
Today, the rhetoric of our country is screaming about a few basic things. The economy, civil rights, and the rights of individual states. I submit to you this is nothing new, and it has happened before.
In the 1830's and 1840's political arguments were made regarding central banks. Andrew Jackson abhorred them, to the point of paying off the national debt and essentially bankrupting the credit market. That was 1835, and that was the last time the United States of America was free of any credit burden. Businesses were being starved of credit by the central grip on banking.
At that same moment in history, the Industrial Age was at its birth. The Northeast was the first geographic area to industrialize. The populations of New England and New York began to increase with immigrants coming to America for jobs and the promise of prosperity. State governments because more powerful, and the need for more capital to finance building projects in cities also increased. Money wasn't free flowing from the Government, and needed to come from somewhere.
The economy of the South was vastly different. Populations of immigrants also grew, but because of slave trade, not voluntary immigration. The agricultural plantations were wildly profitable because there was no payroll. Agricultural products like tobacco, cotton and other crops could be exported directly overseas. Credit wasn't as necessary, and money was in heavy supply in the Southern economy.
The north needed cash. The south had it. The industrial age made slave labor unnecessary, and gave rise to ethical debates about civil rights. The north didn't think slavery was right, the south needed it. And at the end of the argument was the right of states to govern themselves as they saw fit.
Well, all three of the items in our world today were in play back then too: The economy, civil rights and states rights. Today, our federal government doesn't feel that states have the right to govern themselves, and that the 10th Amendment has no effect. The government further feels it has the right to control business and govern capital by central monetary policy. Businesses are being told where they can locate, and being heavily taxed to shoulder the burdens of social programs.
Civil rights no longer surround slavery but sexual orientation, same sex marriage, the stripping of religion from culture and government, abortion and marijuana use. Governor Perry of Texas is being sued by a group from another state (from Wisconsin) for endorsing a day of prayer in his state of Texas. The basis of the suit: the civil rights of non-Christians and atheists are being violated by his personal endorsement of his beliefs.
The Civil War - the bloodiest war ever fought on home soil - started in 1861. Understand full well, the Civil War was not fought over slavery at all. It was fought over money and government control. It only took about twenty five years for the Southern states to get fed up with the Federal government’s raiding and plundering of their cash rich economies.
Fifteen states are already moving to coin their own currency. Twenty-seven states are suing the federal government to stop it from imposing centralized healthcare on their citizens. States are attempting to pass legislation confirming marriage as between a man and a woman. In South Carolina last year, the governor was sued for not add Federal stimulus dollars to the state budget, and lost. Our nation’s politics are split almost perfectly in half along party lines. Gridlock and blame are rampant in our nation’s capital and the states are getting tired of it.
If you don't think the nation could ever see another Civil War, you need to go back and read your history books and understand well the real precipitants of the war, and look critically at what is happening today. Business, politics, and public sentiment move much faster today than they did in the 1850’s. It would be shameful for our country to be torn in two because we couldn’t learn yesteryears lessons.
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