Is there any way that the CSA could have become an autonomous region or SAR of the USA?

Is there any way that the CSA could have become an autonomous region of the US or a territory? (like Puerto Rico). Or a Special Administrative Region like Hong Kong is to China? OR, was the result of the Civil War all of nothing to where the CSA is either independent or recaptured?
 
all of the States have special powers and autonomy which has become more limited in time. We are a federal republic after all. The realities of the mid 19th century to present brought about some centralization

As to special status regarding slavery (or for that matter modern issues like Gay Rights, Voting rights etc), its not how our Republic works. The Constitution applies to everyone as individuals as well as to the States themselves.
 
A big no.
For the Government of CSA, a government-in-exile was more viable than such status, which in their opinion was humiliating.
 
In the course of the Secession Crisis of 1861, there was much discussion, and some legislative progress towards, various arrangements that would have given the seceding states a great deal of freedom in the handling of their domestic affairs in exchange for the continued collection, for the sake of the Federal Government, of tariffs in Southern ports. In our time line none of these proposals survived the onset of hostilities. However, if one of them had been adopted, the result would have been the conversion of the Southern states into "autonomous regions" that, while self-governing, would be part of a "customs union" with the United States.
 

RousseauX

Donor
Is there any way that the CSA could have become an autonomous region of the US or a territory? (like Puerto Rico). Or a Special Administrative Region like Hong Kong is to China? OR, was the result of the Civil War all of nothing to where the CSA is either independent or recaptured?
That's basically the arrangement after 1876 OTL w.r.t to southern state governments who got enormous amount of autonomy (more autonomous than HK is in China today prob) especially in dealing with their black population. This is the root cause of why "state's rights" is such a huge deal in US politics today.
 
As to special status regarding slavery (or for that matter modern issues like Gay Rights, Voting rights etc), its not how our Republic works. The Constitution applies to everyone as individuals as well as to the States themselves.

I believe that for a long time that wasn't the case; large parts of the US constitution were only supposed to apply to the federal government, and their applicability to the states only gradually increased to the point that it is at now. Even today there are parts that do not apply to the states (e.g. states do not have to have a President with two four-year terms)
 
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