national identity disorder

I think we haven't really reconciled ourselves, north or south, to the idea that the former Confederate states were conquered.

Part of it —– just a part —– is that many people don't think that the Confederate States were an actual republic.    In my point of view, and in many people's, a state that can be part of a union, whether European or American, may withdraw by the same free will that it joined.    When they withdrew and formed a nation, that was a real nation.    It was wrong to do, but valid in the sense of statehood.    (Many Americans would say that can't and didn't happen, and that the confederates weren't 'allowed' to leave.)

Then they went to war with the US.    The CSA was an enemy of the USA.    The USA then defeated and (re)annexed the CSA.

Naturally this is a minority view of things.    Lincoln carefully avoided any action that would affirm the idea that the CSA was a sovereign nation.    They never were granted full diplomatic recognition by other sovereign states either.    And, of course, neither actually officially declared war.

To me, the facts on the ground matter more.    A state that can join can secede;  these states did;  the union they left defeated them and forced them back in. These facts address the Texas Myth, that idea, so fondly trotted out by Texans now and then, that, since Texas was a Republic, it could 'legally' secede from the US.    But it did secede, with other states, and was then defeated.    The terms of Reconstruction supercede the previous terms.    Texas could no more get away with secession a second time than it did the first.    More to my main point, these facts also explain a lot about the political psychology of the former Confederate states, including Texas, whose tie to slavery was a driving force behind its musical-chairs trip through 5 flags in 40 years.

One day, maybe, we'll have a national conversation about all this.    Meanwhile, as it did in Michigan of all places last week, the 3-faces-of-Eve nature of national identity will continue to show itself.