Secesh (@Secesh)

"...At one single blow our foreign commerce must be reduced to less than one-half what it now is. Our coastwise trade would pass into other hands. One-half of our shipping would lie idle at our wharves. We should lose our trade with the South, with all of its immense profits. Our manufactories would be in utter ruins. Let the South adopt the free-trade system, or that of a tariff for revenue, and these results would alike follow. If protection be wholly withdrawn from our labor, it could not compete, with all the prejudices against it, with the labor of Europe. We should be driven from the market, and millions of our people would be compelled to go out of employment..." -- Daily Chicago Times, Value of the Union, December 10, 1860 #sec016 #north #south #civilwar #tariff #employment #union #confederacy #dixie #money #foreigncommerce #jobs #freetrade #coastwisetrade #shipping So, this is the ("out loud part") real reason why the South was not allowed to peacefully secede -- all the money, shipping, jobs, etc lost by the North if the South were to leave...