[Remember_Salamis]

The gross value of Northern Industry didn't even come close to the gross value of Southern Argicultural land.

Regardless of how small the government was, they were going to lose 75% over their revenue with the South gone.

That means a QUADRUPLING of taxes on the North! With rumbplings of secession already going on in New York, the Union would have been in trouble...

[muawiyah]

Northern Industry was generally underestimated and discounted by Southern politicians of the time. Otherwise they'd paid attention to what was going on and gotten in on the new gravy train!

BTW, 25% of the world's total supply of Class A farmland is located in a single state ~ Iowa!

Southern states were up against a wall when it came to agriculture ~ their lateric soils meant they'd have to stick to slash and burn, or extended periods of fallowness. It wasn't until the invention of modern fertilizers that the typical Southern field could begin to come close to average corn production in Indiana (for example).

Do not be misled by current conditions.