huh? I have no idea how you got that from my post. I never said anything about slavery not being the most important issue (it obviously was), just that, contrary to what you often hear, it wasn’t just an issue of state’s rights (from the confederate POV). The confederates wanted the continued federal protection of their right to own slaves (as was guaranteed under the constitution) to trump the northern states own anti-slavery laws (even in northern jurisdictions). And like I said, Lincoln would have allowed them to continue the practice of slavery (but only in states where it was already legal), as long as the non-slave-owning states didn’t have to enforce their slave-contracts by returning escaped slaves, he was not an outright abolitionist (he was in favour of ‘compensated emancipation’ to gradually end slavery), he supported the Corwin Amendment, and even during the Civil War was willing to compromise if it would end the conflict.
