See:
The Way We Weren't
By David von Drehle
at:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2063679,00.htmlwhich contains, under the chapter heading "Why it Matters" (at:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2063679-4,00.html )
the statement:
"Robust controversies rage and always will, but the distortion and occluded memory that shaped the Lost Cause story is found now only on the academic fringe. What energy exists in the modern version comes from a clique of libertarians who view the Union cause as a fearsome example of authoritarian central government crushing individual dissent. Slave owners make odd libertarian heroes, but by keeping the focus narrowly on Big Government, this school uses the secession cause to dramatize issues of today."
***
If anything, this underscores the convenience to our rulers of controlling both sides of an issue, in that a strong central government and slavery are both in their interests, so by putting one of these political "poison pills" into the ideological justification of each cause, they ensure that part of their program is advanced regardless of who wins. It's a little like the beer advertisement where the Indians and the Cavalry are fighting over "Tastes Great" vs. "Less Filling", while they're both advertising the same brand of beer.
We must not forget that, in the end, Lincoln's issuance of state-sponsored fiat currency (the famous "greenbacks") made a huge difference with our rulers, as is evidenced by the famous Times of London "Hazard Circular of 1865":
"If this mischievous financial policy, which has its origin in North America, shall become endurated down to a fixture, then that Government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off debts and be without debt. It will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce. It will become prosperous without precedent in the history of the world. The brains, and wealth of all countries will go to North America. That country must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe."
which, in turn, is a more hyperventilating version of the less well-known Hazard Circular of 1862:
"Slavery is likely to be abolished by the war power, and all chattel slavery abolished. This I and my friends are in favor of, for slavery is but the owning of labor and carries with it the care of the laborers, while the European plan, led on by England, is that capital shall control labor by controlling wages. The great debt that capitalists will see to it is made out of the war must be used as a means to control the volume of money. To accomplish this, the bonds must be used as a banking basis. We are now waiting for the secretary of the treasury to make this recommendation to Congress. It will not do to allow the greenback, as it is called, to circulate as money any length of time, as we cannot control that. But we can control the bonds and through the bonds the bank issues."