> There was a process of admission to the union. The Southern states joined
> freely by ratifying the constitution and signing on the dotted line. They
> even supplied quite a few of our first presidents. (Of the 15 presidents
> before Lincoln, 7 were born in Virginia, 1 in North Carolina, and 1 in South
> Carolina.) That has nothing at all in common with a Nazi Anschluss.
Well, aside from where Hitler came from.
-- Andy