The Confederate States Nation

The Confederate States of America, culturally the most distinct region of the North America and an independent nation, has the population and the economy of one of the most powerful nations on earth. The Confederacy composed of only the eleven States of the former Confederate States of America, (i.e. Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia), has 74 million people, the thirteenth most populous in the world. It has more people than France or Britain, and almost as many as the united Germany. In economic power, the above eleven States have the fourth largest gross domestic product (1990) figures, after the United States, Japan, and Germany.

A Southern nation, however could be larger or smaller than the above eleven States. The United States Census Bureau defines the South as the Confederate States, plus Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Oklahoma, with the District of Columbia thrown in. Politically, however, the Confederacy is defined as the eleven Confederate States, plus Kentucky and Oklahoma. This is the South as defined by the U. S. Congressional Quarterly. The Census Bureau and Congressional Quarterly Souths each have the largest population and gross domestic product of the four major former U.S. regions. Even the eleven State Confederate South has more people than any other major North American region, and a gross domestic product larger than that of the Midwest or the West and essentially even with that of the Northeast.

A Southern nation composed of ten of the Confederate States, all except Texas, unique in a number of ways, would have 56 million people (about the size of France, Italy, and the United Kingdom), and the sixth largest gross domestic product of the nations of the earth.

Without Florida also, a State heavily occupied by the North, a nine-State Confederacy would retain 43 million people and have a gross domestic product not much below that of the United Kingdom. Even the five States of the Deep South, (Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina), alone have 22 million people, not far below that of Canada and four million more than Australia. Their gross domestic product is roughly in league with that of Canada, Brazil, and Spain.

HOW AN INDEPENDENT DIXIE WOULD COMPARE TO THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD IN POPULATION AND GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT

The following tables give the comparisons:

Population
1993 data, in thousands

Source: For nations of the world, The World Bank Atlas, 1995 (Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, 1994). For U.S. States, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1994.

Gross Domestic Product
1990 data, In millions of U.S. dollars

Source: For nations, Statistical Yearbook, 1992, (New York: United Nations, 1994). For U.S. States, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1994.

Source: Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1994.

Congressional votes over the past thirty years demonstrate how much more attuned to the conservative values of Southerners an independent Southern nation would be. On a number of key votes, reflecting a wide range of policy issues, the Southern Senators or representatives or both in the U.S. congress have cast majorities contrary to the votes of the U.S. Congress as a whole. On immigration, school prayer, abortion, busing, balanced budgets, size of government, taxation, and Supreme Court appointees, to name some of the issues, public policy during the past thirty years would have been decidedly different if the Confederate States were not occupied. These policy changes would produce a free Confederacy, more in keeping with the desires and the cultural lifestyles of a majority of Southerners.

These votes cover social, economic, governmental, and foreign affairs policies. They are only selective. For purposes of this inquiry, the South is the U. S. Congressional Quarterly South of the initial eleven States of the Confederay plus Kentucky and Oklahoma. These States do form politically the Occupied Southern region of the United States.

A STATISTICAL DEMONSTRATION OF HOW THE U.S. CONGRESS DOES NOT GOVERN OCCUPIED DIXIE THE WAY THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE WOULD GOVERN DIXIE IF WE WERE A FREE AND LIBERATED NATION

The following chart compares the U. S. Congressional vote of the Occupied Confederacy and the entire United States, including these Southern States, on twenty-six votes during approximately the last thirty years. In each case the Occupied South voted differently from the United States as a whole, whether in a straight majoritarian sense, or in a requirement for a supra majority (a majority greater than 50%).

SOCIAL ISSUES

ECONOMIC AND FISCAL ISSUES

GOVERNMENTAL ISSUES

Foreign Policy Issues

Source: U.S. Congressional Quarterly

*C.S.A. = Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

**Treaties require a two-thirds vote for ratification.

Paper prepared for DixieNet and the League of the South by William Lamar Cawthon, Jr. , 9 October 1995 and revised on 27 February 1997.