Mississippi:
“In the momentous step which our State has taken of dissolving its connection with the government of which we so long formed a part, it is but just that we should declare the prominent reasons which have induced our course.
Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery— the greatest material interest of the world. “
Virginia:
“The people of Virginia, in their ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America, adopted by them in Convention on the twenty-fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, having declared that the powers granted under the said Constitution were derived from the people of the United States, and might be resumed whensoever the same should be perverted to their injury and oppression; and the Federal Government, having perverted said powers, not only to the injury of the people of Virginia, but to the oppression of the Southern Slaveholding States.”
Georgia:
“The people of Georgia having dissolved their political connection with the Government of the United States of America, present to their confederates and the world the causes which have led to the separation. For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery. “
And so on.
Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery— the greatest material interest of the world. “
Good quotes.
The author is rather fast and loose with the facts.
I was taught slavery was the primary cause of the Civil War, in 1967. That was 43 years before 2013.
There has been contention over the causes of the war since it started. Clearly, slavery was an important issue. Maybe not the most important; that is in contention. But, it was an important issue.