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I believe that if the South had won the American Civil War, a very important new perspective of democracy would have taken hold. Personally, in hindsight, I see the problems our nation faces today (inequality issues) as mirrored in the supposed reasons a civil war became necessary then. The will of the people (the majority) was completely disregarded then, while State's Rights were set on the path to near ruin. It was a war the North did not want to fight; but, because of one man's refusal to relinquish power over others, much American blood was shed in four years of brutal warfare. The one man causing such carnage was President Abraham Lincoln.

So much has been made of the issue over slavery that most people do not think about the issue of State's Rights. The South was a different place in the early 1800s. It was almost the complete opposite of the North. The agricultural South mainly a source for food and raw materials, which the industrialized North enjoyed and turned into finished products. Cotton was the main source of revenue in the South, which fed the textile industries up North.

Both cotton harvesting and garment making required slave labor, as both required large numbers of low-paid workers that could be overworked without complaint. Slavery was the outright purchasing of captured, defeated or kidnapped Africans, sold by African slavers. The northeast sweatshops were fill with willing immigrant, who thought America was the land of opportunity, only to find the slums were all they could afford from sweatshop labors. The Civil War was not won by northerners who wanted to free the slaves. It was won by mass numbers of conscripted men (something the South did not have - mass numbers or conscription), who were forced by generals to fight and die, knowing they would eventually win the war through attrition. If it was up to the people, war would have been the last option.

Clearly, with the 1840-onward expansion of states, with the addition of more and more territories, through purchases and westward colonization, the Union was becoming unequally populated. In little over 60 years the 13 original states had doubled to 26, with Florida, Wisconsin, Iowa and "Unorganized" territories. By 1852 there were 31 states, including California and Texas, with the Minnesota, Utah, Oregon, New Mexico and "Unorganized" territories. Finally, by 1860 election there were 33 states, with Oregon and Minnesota then states, and Nebraska, Washington, Utah, New Mexico, Kansas and

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