By Norman Fowler, Guest Columnist| The News Herald

The current woke mania has reinforced the lie that politically correct historians,politicians, and pundits have foisted upon the American public, that the War for SouthernIndependence was all about slavery, that it was entirely the Souths fault for defending an evil institution against the benevolent agenda of the North.

The reasons for that tragedy were far more complex, with protective tariffs and states rights far more prominent thanslavery, an issue demagogued by the North and used to justify their illegal invasion. Inthe 1800s tariffs paid for most for most the government with the South paying about 75%of the tariffs but receiving only 25% of government expenditures.

In December 1860 the Chicago Daily Times foretold the disaster that Southern secession and free ports would bring to Northern commerce: "In one single blow our foreign commerce must be reduced to less than one-half what it now is. Our coastwise trade would pass into other hands. One-half of our shipping would lie idle at our wharves. We should lose our trade with the South, with all of its immense profits. Our manufactories would be in utter ruins. Let the South adopt the free-trade system … and these results would likely follow."

The Souths discontent over tariffs was summarized in the Jan. 15, 1861,address ofTexas Congressman John Reagan: "You are not content with the vast millions of tributewe pay you annually under the operation of our revenue law, our navigation laws, your fishing bounties, and by making your people our manufacturers, our merchants, our shippers. You are not satisfied with the vast tribute we pay you to build up your great cities, your railroads, your canals. You are not satisfied with the millions of tribute we have been paying you on account of the balance of exchange which you hold against us.

"You are not satisfied that we of the South are almost reduced to the condition of overseers of northern capitalists. You are not satisfied with all this; but you must wage a relentlesscrusade against our rights and institutions."

The South could see no future in remaining in a Union dominated by the tyranny of a Northern majority and seceded. Concerning the issue of slavery, consider (as M.Y. Griffith explains) that If the Southern states had not seceded, there would have been nowar and slavery would have continued.

If the Southern states had surrenderedwhenLincolnissued his call-up for an invasion force, there would have been no war andslavery would have continued.If Jefferson Daviss first announcement as Confederatepresident had been that the Confederacy was going to abolish slavery, Lincoln and theRadicals still would have invaded the South.

If the Confederacy had informedLincolnatany point during the war that it was going to start an emancipationprogram,Lincolnwould not have suddenly called off the federal invasion.The issue wasSouthern independence, not slavery. Emancipation was a consequence of the warunintended at the outset, and played no discernible role in the northern refusal to let thelower South go in peace.

The fact that the pogrom against the Plains Indians began just three months after Leessurrender also calls into question the notion that racial injustices in the South were the primary motivation for Northerners willingness to wage such a long and destructive war.

In the long history of mankind, there has never been a nation invade another for the sole purpose of freeing an oppressed minority. It is naive to believe that the North did so in 1861.

Finally, consider what award winning economist, well-known author and historical student Dr. Walter E. Williams of George Mason University says: THEPROBLEMS THAT LED TO THE CIVIL WAR are the same problems today big,intrusive government. The reason we dont face the specter of another Civil War isbecause todays Americans dont have yesteryears spirit of liberty and constitutionalrespect, and political statesmanship is in short supply.

The author, Norman Fowler, is a member Sons Of Confederate Veterans and a resident of Panama City.

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GUEST OPINION: Slavery was not the issue in Civil War - The News Herald