modern scholarship of the past 30-40 years does not support that interpretation of the events leading up to the u.s. civil war. the most important factor leading to secession was for the protection of human chattel slavery and while the majority of the northern populace supported the war on the basis of maintaining the union at the beginning of the war there was plurality support for emancipation by the time of the proclamation and majority support by the time of the gettysburg address. simply wishing that slavery was not the main issue for the south does not make it so, regardless of the incredibly ahistoric approach to the subject taught in secondary schools in the south as recently as the 90s.
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