[Plumberman27]

At that point in time it was all about tariffs and state rights. Slavery never entered the War of Northern Aggression until Lincoln started to run out of bodies and needed to bring in Black people to fight for the north. Keep in mind northern state and some of their generals even had slaves.

[APFel]

A fistful of baloney. Have a look at the laws and acts leading up to the American Civil War and quit spreading that nonsense.

APf

[AnotherUnixGeek]

At that point in time it was all about tariffs and state rights. Slavery never entered the War of Northern Aggression until Lincoln started to run out of bodies and needed to bring in Black people to fight for the north.

I took a look at the official declarations of secession composed by several state governments and they sure seem to think slavery entered into it:

Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union

Declaration of Causes of Secession(Georgia, Mississippi, Texas)

Some excerpts:

South Carolina: "Those States have assume the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions; and have denied the rights of property established in fifteen of the States and recognized by the Constitution; they have denounced as sinful the institution of slavery; they have permitted open establishment among them of societies, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and to eloign the property of the citizens of other States. They have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes; and those who remain, have been incited by emissaries, books and pictures to servile insurrection."

Georgia: "For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery."

Mississippi: "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization."

Texas: "We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable."

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Keep in mind northern state and some of their generals even had slaves.

More like some slave states didn't feel the need to secede and some generals didn't let their loyalty to their state trump their oath as a United States officer.

[lentulusgracchus]

Keep in mind northern state and some of their generals even had slaves.

Sen. Stephen Douglas ("the Little Giant") owned slaves. His second wife inherited a plantation in Mississippi. Douglas of course acquired proprietorship when he married her in about 1855 (her property became his, under 19th century marriage laws), but he kept it at arm's length, hiring a manager and only visiting the plantation for some emergency or other that demanded his presence. But he enjoyed the income, which helped him in his political endeavors. I think he still owned it when he died in 1861, a couple of months after the war started.

[bushpilot1]

Since you mentioned running out of bodies..

[BroJoeK]

Plumberman27: "At that point in time it was all about tariffs and state rights.
Slavery never entered the War of Northern Aggression until Lincoln started to run out of bodies and needed to bring in Black people to fight for the north.
Keep in mind northern state and some of their generals even had slaves."

It was only about slavery, as far as the Deep South's secession was concerned.

Read again the four Declarations of Reasons for Secession by the Deep South.
"Slavery" (slaveholding, anti-slavery, etc) and "property" are mentioned over 100 times.
Tariffs are not mentioned even once.

That's because it was not about tariffs, it was all about slavery.

To defend their "peculiar institution" the Deep South:

1. Unconstitutionally declared their secession (starting in December 1860)
2. Unlawfully seized dozens of Federal forts, armories, ships, customs houses, a mint, etc.. (January through May 1861)
3. Rebelliously fired on Federal forces. (January through April 1861).
4. Declared War on the United States -- May 6, 1861.

The South declared war to protect slavery.
The North accepted war first to preserve the Union, only later to free the slaves.