re: #149 lostlakehiker

Letting the South go would have been a disaster. For starters, slavery would have dragged on at least for decades. And then there’s the economic aspect. Imagine toll booths and customs duties up and down the Mississippi. And then there’s the military side of things. Imagine Germany inveigling the Confederacy into WW1 on her side. Not that it would have gone that way, but Germany would have tried for it and might have made it happen.

There are so many downsides to a Confederacy that it’s just stomach churning to think how bad it could have been. Our real-world situation, warts and all, is so very much better than any reasonably likely outcome of a Confederate States that gained its independence, with or without war.

The biggest downside is that the Confederacy couldn’t have lasted long.

Since it was founded on the principle of ‘If I don’ wanna I don’ hafta’ the first time say, Georgia and South Carolina, had a different of opinion and the Confederate government decided for one side, or even tried a compromise, one or both states would walk.

What’s the Confederacy going to do? Send troops to force them back in? Most likely the other Confederate States would have said, “Fuck you,” and walked themselves. That process would have continued down to the county and municipal level.

By the start of the 20th Century the South would have looked like Somalia.