Not saying I support slavery because I don't. It was an economic issue that caused the Civil War. If the Federal Government had offered to compensate the money invested in slavery to free the slaves in a fair & equitable manner, then succession & Civil War could have been avoided completely.
When I saw your post, I had just pulled up the ordinances of secession from the Civil War Home Page http://www.civil-war.net/pages/ordinances_secession.asp and read through some of them. I have already done research that has led me to believe that, as you say, the war was really over an economic situation that had reached a boiling point. However, I wanted to check the words in those Declarations that seem to support the slavery argument.
There is much mention of slavery. They were slave holders, as abhorrent as we find that now, and the casual reader who only wants to affirm that Lincoln was a hero could find plenty of fodder there. There is mention of other oppression from the Union, but the word slave is just such a hot button, that the other issues seem to be minimized by today’s way of thinking. It is extremely important to go back several years before those Ordinances and Articles were written to find the true beginnings of that boiling cauldron that took so many lives.
The Southern States make much mention of the North terrorizing them. Terrorism, plain and simple. Burning, raping, looting. The War of Northern Aggression began even before the South seceded. The North had been whipped into a frenzy of hatred for the South by the PR of the day that made them believe it was all about slavery. It was effective motivation for Lincoln’s sympathizers and also provided a nice cover for the real reason Lincoln couldn’t afford to lose the South.
We are still living with the smoldering fires of that hatred today. Neither black nor white has ultimately benefited from that emotional extreme. A different leader in the Union might have provided a way to break the back of slavery without so much hatred.
Had ending slavery been the sole objective, negotiations and talks and compromises with the Southern States would have been chosen over terrorism. Slavery would have been phased out. Compensation would have been made to the South for its economic loss. The slaves would have been freed, trained and integrated into society in those early years. As stated in the Mississippi Declaration of Immediate Causes about the intention of the North “It seeks not to elevate or to support the slave, but to destroy his present condition without providing a better.”
The South was bludgeoned, their homes and lives were destroyed and they, understandably, dug in their heels.