History shows that the northern interests were amenable to waiting. History also shows that the southern slavers were not.
If you wish to point fingers of blame for the precipitation of warfare, of conflict, of death and destruction in the 1860’s you need look no further than the southern slavers. They are at the root of all the misery that came after their hissy fit at losing an election.
Slavery was ending in the civilized world long before tensions spilled over in the United States. Imagine if one of these slavocrats had picked up a paper - oh, anytime between 1772 with Lord Mansfield’s judgement in the Somersett’s case, or 1793 with Canada’s Act Against Slavery, and 1807 and British Parliament’s Slave Trade Act of 1807 they would have seen that slavery was dying - and the smart thing to do was to get out while the getting was good.
Sure, it hadn’t been abolished absolutely or in toto, but the movement was undeniably in that direction. Imagine now, if you will, that the more responsible among those slavocrats had recognized, understood, and appreciated that the arc of history was not in their favor. Imagine if at least one of them had said, “Damn, the tide has turned against us!”
The aggregation and consolidation of power was there - but it was at the hands of the slavers. Your beef isn’t with the unionists - it’s with jeff davis. He was the architect of misery and destruction.
Because just leaving them alone was unthinkable.