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Slavery was well down the list of beefs Southerns had with Lincoln except amongst the very rich.



Except that the very rich ran the South. The whole Missouri Compromise and Kansas/Nebraska tensions were over slavery. So, while it was not the only issue, it was a crucial part of the secession and thus the war.

In my opinion, he South wasn't looking for a war. They were just looking to leave the Union. The North wouldn't let the South go.

Most of the North wasn't fighting over slavery at the time of secession, but Union. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation well into the war and against much of his cabinet's advice. Many of the "copperheads" cited the change in the war's goals as their reason for opposing Lincoln and the war.

"My paramount object, is to save the Union, and not either destroy or save slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing the slaves, I would do it. If I could save the Union by freeing some and leaving others in slavery, I would do it. If I could save it by freeing all, I would do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because it helps save the Union" - a letter from Pres. Lincoln to Horace Greeley about a month before the proclamation.


Let us permit the statesmen of South Carolina to speak for themselves and reference their own justifications for seceding. A brief extract from the "Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union".

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The Constitution of the United States, in its fourth Article, provides as follows:
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"No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due."
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This stipulation was so material to the compact, that without it that compact would not have been made. The greater number of the contracting parties held slaves, and they had previously evinced their estimate of the value of such a stipulation by making it a condition in the Ordinance for the government of the territory ceded by Virginia, which now composes the States north of the Ohio River.
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The same article of the Constitution stipulates also for rendition by the several States of fugitives from justice from the other States.
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The General Government, as the common agent, passed laws to carry into effect these stipulations of the States. For many years these laws were executed. But an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations, and the laws of the General Government have ceased to effect the objects of the Constitution. The States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, have enacted laws which either nullify the Acts of Congress or render useless any attempt to execute them. In many of these States the fugitive is discharged from service or labor claimed, and in none of them has the State Government complied with the stipulation made in the Constitution. The State of New Jersey, at an early day, passed a law in conformity with her constitutional obligation; but the current of anti-slavery feeling has led her more recently to enact laws which render inoperative the remedies provided by her own law and by the laws of Congress. In the State of New York even the right of transit for a slave has been denied by her tribunals; and the States of Ohio and Iowa have refused to surrender to justice fugitives charged with murder, and with inciting servile insurrection in the State of Virginia. Thus the constituted compact has been deliberately broken and disregarded by the non-slaveholding States, and the consequence follows that South Carolina is released from her obligation.

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Amo i Gemelli!! wink