[Tau Food]

Both sides had people who were calling the shots for their own side. The Union could have avoided war by allowing the secessions to take place and the folks on the other side could have avoided war by not seceding in the first place or by calling off the secessions in early 1861.

In other words, bloodshed was the result of the failure by each side to give the other side what it wanted.

[DiogenesLamp]

In other words, bloodshed was the result of the failure by each side to give the other side what it wanted.

Except that one side had a moral and acknowledged right (1776) to get what it wanted. (Independence) The other side did not have a right to get what it wanted. (Subjugation)

Your argument is like saying that a rapist and a rape victim are morally equivalent; that each one fights to get what they want is true, but the moral difference between what one wants and what the other wants are not at all the same.

[Mollypitcher1]

Some southern states had the RIGHT to leave the union, guaranteed at the time of agreeing to the Constitution. They hadRESERVED their RIGHT to leave the union which was ignored by Lincoln.