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We emphasize economics and politics as major factors leading to war. The Republicans who came to power in 1860 supported a mercantilist economic agenda of protectionism, inflation, public works, and big government. High tariffs would have been a boon to manufacturing and mining in the north, but would have been paid largely by those in the export-oriented agriculture economy.
Southern economic interests understood the effects of these policies and decided to leave the union. The war was clearly related to slavery, but mainly in the sense that Republican tariffs would have squeezed the profitability out of the slave-based cotton plantation economy to the benefit of Northern industry (especially Yankee textiles and iron manufacturing). Southerners would also have lost out in terms of public works projects, government land giveaways, and inflation.
Originally posted by mnemeth1
Lincoln was a fascist pig that destroyed the nations currency, destroyed state sovereignty, and completely ignored the constitution on all levels, and instigated a war that killed more American's than any other war in US history...
Originally posted by mnemeth1
reply to post by silent thunder
Lincoln created the greenback to bypass the gold standard, real money, so he could fund his insane agenda.
Lincoln ended up destroying the currency in the process, and you want to thank him for this?
While the banks were terrible, what Lincoln did was a sick joke.
The northern industrialists were all for this, since they got the new money first.