And yet Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation! Go figure.
The Confederacy—and its founders—recognized Negro slavery as a central principle upon which their new nation was based. Of that there is no doubt. It's printed in black and white in the Confederate Constitution.
While the U.S. Constitution has a clause that states "No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed", the Confederate Constitution added a phrase to explicitly protect slavery, and, indeed, recognized it as a Right. Quoting from the Confederate Constitution:
Article I Section 9(4) No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed.So even if the "war" wasn't about slavery, the very existence of the Confedracy categorically was.
So the founders of the Confederacy—who were willing to fight a war to preserve and defend the Confederate Constitution—a Constitution which recognized "the right of property in negro slaves"—apparently disagreed with President Lincoln on that issue.
That's rich! At the time that was identical to the United States Constitution.
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued three years into the war, and it only applied to the territory Lincoln’s government didn’t control. It did nothing to free a single slave.
How many Northern Slaves did that free?
And so you are saying it was their constitution that provoked an invasion?
So even if the "war" wasn't about slavery, the very existence of the Confedracy categorically was.
So it was before the secession as well. Apparently Washington was okay with that so long as they kept getting the benefits of that slave earned money.