Here's a review of what you forgotten from post # 59.
South Carolina's Declaration mentioned slavery 18 times. Mississippi's mentioned it 7 times. Florida's Declaration of Causes mentions slavery 14 times. Alabama's states slavery 1 time. Georgia's mentions slavery 35 times. Texas mentioned slavery 1 time. Virginia mentioned slavery 1 time. Arkansas' mentions slavery 28 times.
That's a total of 8 confederate states boldly claiming in their declaration to the union and the whole world that slavery was very much a reason for secession. Saying that slavery isn't a main reason for secession would be like me claiming my fat isn't due to overeating.
I'll give you credit, though. You've caused me to rethink my position that the south is the one who started the war. It looks very much like you're right that it's the north who were the first to be aggressive. The southern states had a right to secede for whatever reason they wanted to.
The way you parse it is misleading. Virginia says "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."
Yes, it mentions slavery in the context of those being the group of states the federal government is oppressing.
It's stated reason for leaving has nothing to do with slavery, but with the federal government launching a war against its sister states.
But as I mentioned before, if states have a right to independence, why does it matter why they want independence? If they have a right to it, they have a right to it, even if they are motivated by a bad reason.
I'll give you credit, though. You've caused me to rethink my position that the south is the one who started the war. It looks very much like you're right that it's the north who were the first to be aggressive.
I didn't know any of those things when I first started discussing this topic. I learned each bit of it piece by piece and I said at the time "this puts an entirely different light on what happened, than what I had been taught all my life."
I had never heard about these warships being sent, and I had also never heard that the Star of the West was carrying troops with the intention of putting them into Fort Sumter.
I could only conclude at the time that this information was deliberately omitted because it shows the events in an unfavorable light for the existing government.
The southern states had a right to secede for whatever reason they wanted to.
That is the conclusion I have reached after weighing a lot of evidence both pro and con. The evidence that states had a right to independence is overwhelming, while the evidence that they didn't is very sparse.
The Civil War was a tragedy that should have never happened. Some of the lingering effects of it are still damaging the nation today, such as the 14th amendment "anchor baby" citizenship.