Mr. Gilmore,

Who is this Bowen who did the analysis of the 1860 census for Jackson County, MO and where does one find his results? One wonders what all perimeters he used and considered in his studies. In my dealings with the census I have found the same individual with a different place of birth varying from one census to another, ages not consistent from one census to the next(i.e. only age 6 years instead of 9-11), various spellings of the same name and the fact you can find more than one individual of the same name, same age and same place of birth. If the individual is single it makes it very hard to know if you have the correct person. It would be interesting to read his report.

Excuse me if I misinterpreted your comments since I have not gone back and reread the entire string to refresh my memory. I am under the impression that you feel the men from the elite families were driven to their acts by others threatening, etc their property and such. If not for that they would have remained paragons of virtue. Now if someone threatened my family and such I would probably grab a shotgun and defend what was mine but that doesn't mean I would throw a saddle on my horse and ride off burning and murdering. But, of course, I'm a woman and don't have a man's mentality. Then there is the mob mentality factor to consider.

If, in your view, the elite is above doing bad how do you explain today's actions of many? Our country was originally designed so the common man could become President. Tell me today how likely is it for an individual that makes $25,000 to $30,000 a year able to hold anything other than a low city or county level position due to the high costs involved in campaigning? By using your standards for elite that makes most all of our politicians fall into the elite class. Since no one is threatening them why are there so many that are not above reproach? The same can be applied to some of those holding positions in the upper levels of company management. There is more involved in the making of an individual than which side of the tracks they were born on. Look at the present day number of rich kids who have everything that are in trouble and they are not living in "Bleeding Kansas" times.