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…the Southern states seceded because Lincoln was elected President and was anti-slavery.

Actually, Mr. Lincoln’s election was only the last in a long series of events that contributed to the decision of the Southern States to secede. Even John G. Nicolay, Mr. Lincoln’s personal friend & private secretary (who could hardly be called unbiased), conceded the point:

With all their affectation of legality, formality, and present justification, some of the members [of the secession convention] were honest enough to acknowledge the true character of the event as the culmination of a chronic conspiracy, not a spontaneous revolution. "The secession of South Carolina," said one of the chief actors, "is not an event of a day. It is not anything produced by Mr. Lincoln's election, or by the non-execution of the Fugitive Slave Law. It is a matter which has been gathering head for thirty years." This with many similar avowals, crowns and completes the otherwise abundant proof that the revolt was not only against right, but that it was without cause.

That “thirty years” brings the origin of the secession movement at least as far back as the Tariff Crisis of the 1830s – which had nothing to do with either Mr. Lincoln or slavery. And if you read Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of 1825 and other historical records, you will find that the roots of secession significantly predate even the Tariff Crisis.

(By the way, we can thank our friend Walt for the Nicolay quote... ;>)

As a proud member of Red State America, I'm really glad the South lost the Civil War. :)

As someone who has sworn an oath to defend the Constitution, I’m really NOT glad Mr. Lincoln’s government and the Northern States ignored our own history, the writings of the Founders, the written records of the ratification debates, the ratification documents of the States, the most respected legal references of the early Republic, and the specific written words of the Constitution of the United States – and pursued a war against secession that killed nearly three quarters of a million Americans…

Ain't buyin' it. I have ancestors who were North Carolina abolitionists. No legislature or convention of North Carolina had any legal right to strip them of their U.S. citizenship and tell them if they wanted to keep it they'd have to flee to the north as refugees. They fought in the Union Army to preserve their constitutional right to keep both their United States and North Carolina citizenship. The secessionist action was illegal and unconstitutional.

So, the South seceded over a thirty year old tariff and the fact that this happened within two months of the election of an anti-slavery President was just one of those loopy one in a million coincidences? Right. And Kerry won Ohio in 2004.