>As a descendent of people who found out first hand just who easy the American Empire
>would conquer, subjugate and systematically break the will of the subject people's will
>to resist in the future I'd like to take exception to that statement.

Um, there is a bit of a difference there. Canada is a separate, independent nation. The Confederacy was part of the US and tried to secede.

Not that I don't share your feelings on the matter. It's really a shame the south lost their bid for independence, because it casts all of American "freedom" and "ideology" in a very poor light, and is a legacy I for one would rather not have. One thing I feel very certain about, any state should have the right to leave the Union at any time if they feel that membership in the Union is no longer the best thing for their people. I realize that states like Ioway or Coloradder would be in pretty bad shape as independent nations, but that doesn't mean the shouldn't have the choice available. :) (Note: the constitution doesn't grant the federal government the right, responsibility, or obligation to put down revolts, but it does say that any power not expressly given to the feds is delegated to the states and/or reserved for the people. This is an arguable point, but I still maintain the South had the right to leave the Union)

Of course, all things considered, if you folks down south really think you're not totally accepted into the Empire, why don't you take a look at how minorities are treated down there. Do you really think you're behaving, as a whole, like the Emporer's men should behave? Last time I checked, there was still a great deal of oppression and hateful violence perpetrated by "whites" and the "descendents of the confederacy" against minorities in the state. Those are other American citizens you people have been mistreating ever since you lost your little revolution, and there's no reason to take out the ineptitude of your ancestors out on the people who were freed when the war ended.

Nobody forced Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, or Georgia to ratify the Articles of Confederation, in effect in 1781. And those articles said not once, not twice, but five times the Union of the United States was perpetual. They had voluntarily and permanently forgone the right to secede seventy-nine years before their acts of secession.

Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tenessee, Alabama, and Florida, by allowing those four states to join the Confederated States of America and providing aid and comfort to their secession, committed a hostile and agressive act against the United States. By unilaterally annexing four states that were perpetual parts of the Union, they brought their conquest upon themselves.