Monopole

     In particle physics investigations with electromagnetism, a monopole is a magnet that can be distinctly separated into individual poles instead of the normal dipolar magnet. While many physicists, especially supporters of string theory, tout the existence of monopoles, it remains unconfirmed in nature. The physicist inquiry only deals with innate matter of the universe but rejects the study of more complex objects. If monopoles could theoretically exist in particles across the universe, then complex agents like people and political affiliations should exemplify this scientific claim easily.
     The American Civil War (1861-1865) split the United States into two camps concerning either states' rights or slavery. The cost of that deliberation was four years, 650,000 lives, and an irreparable rent in American identity. Regardless of the fundamental cause of the war, the ideological divide of Congress reflected in the eventual allegiance of each state. In every conflict a line must be drawn, and this division formed along the border states between the free, pro-Union North and pro-slavery, rebel South. The collision between the Northern industrial might and Southern fervor energies clashed along that border with enough blood and horror to rename towns.

     The border states had the most to lose in this conflict. The support of their populations was divided, the requisition of their resources was hounded, and the pain of the war stretched through their lands.
     Missouri had long been at the heart of the slavery controversy in the United States with politicking creating the Missouri Compromise in 1820. Kentucky attempted to remain neutral but eventually sided with the Union in attempts to stave off invasion by a Southern general. Virginia voted to secede, but by 1863 the western portion of the state seceded from Virginia and was voted back into the Union as West Virginia. With the anti-Union antagonism in Baltimore, Maryland reached a crescendo in riots that killed a dozen people and solidly pitted the city legislature and much of the state in opposition to Federal military actions.
     One of the most blatant actions taken by the Federal (Union) government involved securing the support of the border state Maryland. Because the federal government resided in Washington D.C. across the river from the Confederate Virginia, Lincoln ordered federal troops to secure Baltimore, its railroad connections, and, by whatever means necessary, the support of the state legislature. While Maryland officially voted to stay in the Union, it did so while occupied by 75,000 Federal troops and a third of its legislature in prison with suspended rights. Lincoln's Army forced Maryland to stay in the Union to protect Washington D.C. Conscription efforts in Maryland forced most of those recruits to serve in far-flung theaters of war to avoid desertion to the South. Though reliable records are difficult to ascertain because of the poor record keeping of the South, an estimated thirty-seven percent of all Maryland Civil War veterans fought for the Confederacy.

   
     Following the Civil War the culture of the border states evolved naturally compared to the suppression of the Solid South. Native Southern Whites resented the Northern carpetbaggers and freed blacks but remembered their solidarity to the Democrat political party. Since the war Missouri, Kentucky, and much of West Virginia realigned cultural values toward the South, rejecting the city richness of many of the Northern states.
     One border state, however, is still refused any positive association or cultural affiliation from either side of the war. The South rejects Maryland because it sided its support and resources to the Union; the North ignores Maryland because its spirit longed for the rebel cause.
     Maryland is the American monopole that takes on the attributes desired from certain perspectives. The South has long resented the War of Northern Aggression, and the North has not forgotten the resentment created from coercive Union. Maryland has suffered substantially from that estrangement and bitterness. The bloodiest day in American history, September 17, 1862, had 22,000 casualties and splattered its blood on Maryland soil.
     In the century and a half since the American Civil War, Maryland has remained an unwanted reject among its counterpart states. The Northern States enjoy its trade and access to the nation's capitol, and the South appreciates its Chesapeake Bay Culture. In that time the Federal Government's powers and wealth have increased substantially, and those financial powers have allowed government officials to buy homes and lands in Maryland. The elite hierarchy resides in Maryland to escape the stress of the city, and the president's retreat is Camp David, in the foothills of Maryland.
     The Civil War was bloody, and the border states soaked that blood in to reshape the nation. Maryland is the ostracized state that has been disowned by both North and South. A consolation prize for that rejection is the wealth of the reformed Federal Government which has made Maryland the richest state in the richest nation in the world, and it is still hated by all.

     To readers around the world, as addressed in "Post Hekaton" in March, 2016, one more post is coming this month before the regular updates for this blog end. Writing efforts are being focused on a novel which has been in planning for six years. The blog may eventually be resurrected because the appeal of learning never diminishes.
     I would like to send my thanks to the many of you that regularly read these clips of historical, political, scientific, and social thought with special thanks to regular readers in France, Portugal, Russia, and the United States.

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Agatha Tyche