Thanks for reminding us of that very important point.
Indeed, far from supporting “states’ rights”, secessionists used Northern states’ rights in fugitive slaves as their legal basis for declaring secession!
Correct. Both sides were perfectly willing to champion states’ rights or federal authority when it suited them. Politics then were not any different in that regard than politics today. The Left today almost invariably screams to centralize power in the hands of the federal government....then they turn right around and declare sanctuary cities/states when federal elections don’t go the way they want. Republicans claim to want a balanced budget or to at least rein in the spending, then when they get in office they vote for a big fat bloated turkey of a budget like we saw this past year.
Well said!