And to assume that the prime motivator for the war was exclusively slavery ignores years of discord over states rights, regionalism, and a host of other issues that had been splitting the North and the South for some time. Examining the Confederate Constitution only strengthens this position.
Further, the election of an abolitionist president and the whole issue of slavery was just the tipping point in a string of state's rights issues that the South protested as power began to centralize around the federal government, which was dominated by the North due to demographic realities; including the Alien and Sedition controversy, the Hartford Convention, and of course the Nullification Crisis - none having anything to do with slavery. The situation was tolerable when most of the power was centered in the states, but as it shifted toward the federal government, the Southern states increasingly saw themselves losing the ability to control their own destinies, which had been a founding principle of the nation. To ignore these undertones in favor of the simplistic "we want our slaves" view does a disservice to the complexities of the political reality of 1800s America.
What would lead you to believe I was talking about slavery?Originally Posted by The Wizard
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