Matthew,
Good questions. I hope they get more than a passing review by us here on the board.
Sometimes reason doesn't enter into a person deciding to do something. The old expression, "blood is thicker than water" has a lot of meaning to those who have slackers and no-goods in their family, but would leap to their defense if they were attacked.
I recall reading many Southern letters and views that decried secession, thought it folly, blood and destruction if the South decided upon that path. They fought against the idea to their last breath and then went with their state when they left the Union. Reasonable? Not to me in the 21st century, but to a person of the time? Hard to judge sometimes from this great a distance.
That is not to say that those who pushed hardest for secession did not have those touches of greed and lust for power mentioned by 5fish, for I have read those letters too. But we all know the South did not have perfect unity on the subject or cause of secession and neither did the North have such when it went to war over maintaining the Union.
But it's fun to discuss and speculate on it, in our safe, comfortable computer rooms/dens, is it not?
Sincerely,
Unionblue
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