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Cargo Cult.

Before the Revolutionary War the British imposed a policy of Mercantilism on their chartered slave colonies in the South. Southern businesses were not allowed to sell their produce to anyone but to the British. They were also only allowed to purchase agricultural equipment and slaves in return for their cotton. This onerous mercantile policy was one of the main reasons the South joined in the Revolution, despite the colonies' strong cultural and familial ties to the British aristocracy and the Crown.

After the Revolution and before the War of Secession, the North imposed a similar policy on the South. Southern produce had to be freighted North on Northern railroads to Northern harbors to be shipped out only on Northern ships. The South was denied the use of its own harbors and ships. Similarly to the British practice, the South was allowed to purchase manufactured goods only from the North. These measures were deliberately designed to enrich Northern merchants and, through monopolistic pricing, break the economic power of the South. Thus, the Northeastern political establishment practiced the dogma of Mercantilism (Cult) in order to gain monopoly profits on "Cargo".

Comment: The original Cargo Cult was first encountered in the South Pacific when a tribe of previously unknown aborigines was discovered to have developed a cult which worshiped the sky gods who flew great, shining "birds" through the sky. By chance, one of the great 'birds' crashed in their midst. Completely ignoring the dead humans in the craft, the aborigines discovered great wealth in the devices, metal and fixtures of the 'bird'. They termed this windfall, "Cargo". From that time forward, the aborigines began elaborate rituals to cause the Sky Gods to bring them more of this silvery Cargo. Ultimately, when all of their rituals failed to please the Sky Gods enough, they backtracked the 'birds' to their source at an airport. When confronted with the actual birds taking off and landing, the aborigines refused to believe that humans built and flew this wealth. They then went back into their jungle and resumed their rituals to the Sky Gods.

Article One, Section nine of the US Constitution reads in part:

No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to. or from one State, be obliged to enter, clear or pay Duties in another.

Feudal Levy.

European Feudalism at the base level consisted of a system of interdependent obligation wherein the feudal lord provided protection and land to farm in return for the largest portion of the crop and the right to claim military service by the bound serf during the months between planting and harvest. Although supposedly voluntary, the servitude was, in fact, hereditary and could only be ended by the serf escaping and hiding out for more than a year. Upon success, the serf became a free man. The call-out of the serfs to military duty was known as the Feudal Levy. As a result of the term limits, the wars of the nobility usually ended abruptly when the crops ripened.

Comment: Lincoln and the Congress instituted conscription in the last part of the war because the voluntary militias had been depleted. The result was wide-spread rioting in New York. A system was instituted whereby prosperous persons could pay another to serve in their place, but most troops thereafter were drafted.

Perhaps, with the guilty conscience of a reformed prostitute, the Congress passed, and had ratified at gunpoint by that same conscript army, the Thirteenth Amendment, which reads, in part:

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." [Italics added; i.e., not "its" - until the 14th Amendment (not properly ratified) we were citizens of our State, not the US - hence not draftable into a Federal Army].

Of course, there is also the relevant Second Amendment, still cherished in the formerly free South:

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." (Italics added)

If a government must resort to involuntary servitude to preserve itself, it is, by definition, a tyrant. If a government can sustain itself by a voluntary, armed, well-regulated (trained*), citizen militia, it is, necessarily, free. The tragedy of this war (as in most wars) is that, with all its good intentions, the tyrant won.

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