Thomas F. Harney

[Wild Bill]

A little story. When I went to grad school and had to grade students' papers in basic US history, all the profs taught Fazio's notion that slavery was the cause of the CW. This holds particularly true in SC, which is a unique state in the South and the Nation in many ways. Yet one sweet thing wrote her paper and then added a paragraph saying that her daddy said it was state rights, and she felt the profs were wrong, and went on to prove it. All the graders wanted to flunk her for straying from the straight and narrow, but I disagreed and said she was the only student who tried to think and she ought to receive an "A." But I did not get to grade her paper as she was in different class section. I think she got a "C." At least I saved her from an "F."

The book that Fazio wants you to read, Rick, is Charles B. Dew, Apostles of Secession: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of he Civil War (Virginia, 2001). Don't feel bad, Fazio has not read it either, right John?.