"We affirm that these ends for which this Government was instituted have been defeated, and the Government itself has been made destructive of them by the action of the non-slaveholding States. Those States have assume the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions; and have denied the rights of property established in fifteen of the States and recognized by the Constitution; they have denounced as sinful the institution of slavery; they have permitted open establishment among them of societies, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and to eloign the property of the citizens of other States. They have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes; and those who remain, have been incited by emissaries, books and pictures to servile insurrection."
We don't need to look at any of the Southern states reasons for leaving, because that had nothing to do with why troops were sent to invade their states.
The only positions we need to concern ourselves with is why Union troops were invading those states. Lincoln controlled the bloodshed. No one else controlled the bloodshed but Lincoln.
He could order men to fight, or he could order them to stop. The Southern states had no control over the violence, because it was being visited upon them, not the other way around.
What were the Union reasons for invading? That is the only question that matters.
Thanks for a great quote.
I have seen no evidence that abolitionism, run-away slaves or slave-rebellion were in any way a problem in South Carolina.
There was simply no way for large numbers of South Carolina slaves to escape up the Underground Railroad to freedom in the North.
So I view such claims as Fire Eater propaganda, intended to incite Deep South whites to support secession, rather than as actual facts on the ground.