And the civil war was a different time... a time when one was more readily identified with the state one was from first, not as an American. These days, we tend to be American first.
Dunno. We kinda hate on Massachusetts every time the news is "Another criminal from Lawrence was caught after robbing a Nashua convenience store/bank/pedestrian/home/business tonight..."
It's like their primary export now. Meth-heads who dive over quickie-mart counters and try to get in the register, or pull an (illegal, obtained in MA, too) gun on the clerk. They just "rehabilitate" them in a halfway house there, they walk out, come up here and try it again. Hell, we even just had a Lawrence COP come up here and rape someone.
Based on news comments where people are furious about "MA criminals becoming our problem because MA won't deal with them", I think a lot of New Hampshire residents would fire on Massachusetts if they were allowed to.
*Lawrence, MA's property crime rate is something like 2500 per 100k, violent crime 1000 per 100k (1 in 100!) people in a population of 70k now. It's a Socialist Wonderland under Deval Patrick, and unfortunately close to Nashua on the other side of the border. Preview of life under Obama.