In a message dated 07/23/2003 1:03:38 PM Eastern Daylight Time, eharding2@cox.net writes: > nothing is returned to them, in the shape of Government expenditures. That > expenditure flows in an opposite direction - it flows northwardly, in one > uniform, uninterrupted, and perennial stream. This is the reason why > wealth disappears from the South and rises up in the North. Federal > legislation does all this." > Ahhh Be still my heart... finally a true Southern Gentleman with an educated opinion. Of course the Southern people had the right to throw off the leech that was draining the life out of them, in this case, the leech being the North. "But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security." --- Declaration Of Independence - 1776 From the: Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union Thus were established the two great principles asserted by the Colonies, namely: the right of a State to govern itself; and the right of a people to abolish a Government when it becomes destructive of the ends for which it was instituted. And concurrent with the establishment of these principles, was the fact, that each Colony became and was recognized by the mother Country a FREE, SOVEREIGN AND INDEPENDENT STATE.....We hold that the Government thus established is subject to the two great principles asserted in the Declaration of Independence; and we hold further, that the mode of its formation subjects it to a third fundamental principle, namely: the law of compact. We maintain that in every compact between two or more parties, the obligation is mutual; that the failure of one of the contracting parties to perform a material part of the agreement, entirely releases the obligation of the other; and that where no arbiter is provided, each party is remitted to his own judgment to determine the fact of failure, with all its consequences. Carolyn "My shoes are gone; my clothes are almost gone. I'm weary, I'm sick, I'm hungry. My family have been killed or scattered. And I have suffered all this for my country. I love my country. But if this war is ever over, I'll be damned if I ever love another country." --- Confederate Soldier During Retreat To Appomattox