Celebrate Cobden
Today at the Mises Institute's Economy, Society, & History seminar (which you really are unfortunate for missing), Joseph Stromberg made sure to remind us that it's Jefferson Davis' birthday.
All well and good, but more worthy of birthday recognition than any politician is Richard Cobden, who was born 200 years ago today.
Donald Boudreaux offers a nice tribute (and follow-up), and directs us to this pro-free trade, pro-peace birthday editorial from The Scotsman. And see Gary Galles' article, "Richard Cobden: Activist for Peace."
Comments (2)
Hey, the Confederate states were still states.
I'm a strict believer in the right of states to secede at will under the terms of the U.S. Constitution, and I figure the more pieces the U.S. is broken up into, the better. The federal government had no authority whatever to invade the CSA.
But I've got no sympathy for the planter aristocracy and its reasons for seceding. They were just another ruling class, like all ruling classes, engaged in rent-seeking behavior through the state. And aside from secession, the southern fire-eaters are no great heroes of liberty. Their repression of anti-slavery speech in the 1850s (let alone slavery itself) is one example among many.
There's a whole cottage industry of professional Confederate apologists like the Kennedy brothers and John Remington Graham who are unable to separate the issue of secession from that of defending the south as a social system.
Published: June 3, 2004 6:13 PM
Cobden and Bright are commemorated on street names near my home
Published: June 4, 2004 4:16 AM