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The South was keenly aware that slavery's days were numbered. And to imply that citizens south of some arbitrary geographical line were somehow morally different than those on the other side is logically unsupportable.

I personally believe that the Confederacy WAS in the right as far as the state sovereignty question is concerned. And while I freely admit to being a racist, since I do not beg forgiveness from black people for sins I've never committed, I do not see myself as a White Supremacist, nor do I align myself with that ideology, which I regard as laughably stupid.

And for what it's worth, I am from an area about as far north of the Mason-Dixon as you can get.

“I personally believe that the Confederacy WAS in the right as far as the state sovereignty question is concerned. And while I freely admit to being a racist, since I do not beg forgiveness from black people for sins I’ve never committed, I do not see myself as a White Supremacist, nor do I align myself with that ideology, which I regard as laughably stupid.”

Racist is to demand someone pay for an injustice committed by anther simply because of their race.

You are NOT racist and you should NEVER allow anyone to forget that fact. You must remember most of their constituency are little more than useful idiots when it comes to words and will Not understand the contraction of their actions with words they don’t understand.

And to imply that citizens south of some arbitrary geographical line were somehow morally different than those on the other side is logically unsupportable.

Never said that. Said they believed different things.

I highly doubt that ANYONE -- North or South -- "insisted blacks be forever enslaved for the benefit of their white masters."

Then you just aren't very familiar with the period. In 1800 the consensus, South and North, was that slavery was a bad thing, but nobody knew how to get rid of it safely.

By 1860 most in the North still believed this, but in the South a new consensus had emerged, that slavery of the black man to the white man was the natural order of things, and therefore a positive good.

The new veep of the CSA made an impromptu speech shortly after his election, that as far as I've ever been able to find out was received with unanimous acclaim throughout the South.

" Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition."

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1861stephens.asp

I have by no means taken Mr. Stephens out of context. If you like I can find dozens or hundreds of similar quotes that show the South had developeda consensus that slavery was a positive good that should be extended indefinitely both in time and space.

The South was keenly aware that slavery's days were numbered.

The south may have been aware of it, but they did nothing to resolve it. As a matter of fact they went decidedly in the opposite direction. The confed constitution (a cobbled up copy of the United States Constitution) included verbiage that specifically allowed internal slave trade (while prohibiting importation of slaves) and in 9.4 extended the explicit right to own other human beings in perpetuity.

The confed south did indeed "insist(ed) blacks be forever enslaved for the benefit of their white masters."

Mechanization would eventually have done away with the need for slaves, and without bankrupting the Southern agrarian economy. I highly doubt that ANYONE -- North or South -- "insisted blacks be forever enslaved for the benefit of their white masters."

I personally believe that the Confederacy WAS in the right as far as the state sovereignty question is concerned. And while I freely admit to being a racist, since I do not beg forgiveness from black people for sins I've never committed, I do not see myself as a White Supremacist, nor do I align myself with that ideology, which I regard as laughably stupid.

I do agree that Slavery would not have lasted too long in the South, by latest, 1900 when mechanization was in full swing. As to the status of Blacks, well, the historical butterflies would be in place but the "alternate historian" in me would have speculated that there might have been a drive to have the freed Blacks resettle in Africa or perhaps in the Carribean somewhere if the Confederates would have expanded there. I just wanted to point out as you did the Civil War was not quite the noble war to end slavery. The North really did not care to end or or not, basically Lincoln freed the slaves to stick it to the South, it was just a tool to do that.