Of course slavery was important. That is why New York voted to include slavery in the US constitution. As did New Jersey. And New Hampshire. And Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, and Delaware, and Maryland.
Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia also voted to enshrine slavery into the US constitution.
A student has only to read the great northern patriot Daniel Webster to understand slavery was still an important issue in the 1850’s, long after northern accountants advised manufacturing owners of the advantages of low-wage sweat shops and fully-stocked industrial scale ghettos.
Said Webster:
“If the South were to violate any part of the Constitution intentionally and systematically, and persist in so doing, year after year, and no remedy could be had, would the North be any longer bound by the rest of it? And if the North were deliberately, habitually, and of fixed purpose to disregard one part of it, would the South be bound any longer to observe its other obligations?
“I have not hesitated to say, and I repeat, that if the Northern States refuse, willfully and deliberately, to carry into effect that part of the Constitution which respects the restoration of fugitive slaves, and Congress provide no remedy, the South would no longer be bound to observe the compact. A bargain cannot be broken on one side and still bind the other side.”
Webster and others were successful in strengthening federal law to enforce Article IV, Section 2 but the law, as before, was widely violated in the North.
After John Brown's murder raid, northern politicians essentially set up sanctuary states to harbor terrorists.
For some reason, the South did not want terrorists attacking them from sanctuary states so they attempted to separate from the convenant-breaking states as Webster had feared. Then Lincoln did what he did resulting in well over 600,000 deaths. Lincoln never attempted to amend the constitution to end slavery peacefully before the war.
Then we are agreed.
Thanks for playing.