Yes, you may be correct there. I have long thought that the North should have said good riddance to the South, and that the South -- like South Africa -- should have been treated as a pariah state until it abolished slavery. The risk, however, is that the phenomenon of "Bloody Kansas" could have extended clear across the continent.
But the North's Civil War victory was -- as is typical of military victories -- hardly a conclusive one. The war was followed by decades of Southern lynchings and the ascendance of the Ku Klux Klan, . Moreover, thanks to the infamous "Southern strategy" adopted by the GOP in the 1970s, all of the South's innate nastiness -- anti-intellectualism, veneration of the military, opposition to unions, etc. --has spread and intensified throughout the US.
Carl
_________________________________________________________________ Need a break? Find your escape route with Live Search Maps. http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?ss=Restaurants~Hotels~Amusement%20Park&cp=33.832922~-117.915659&style=r&lvl=13&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=1118863&encType=1&FORM=MGAC01