The War Between the States was fought over numerous causes:
the centralization of power at the expense of the states’ constitutional protections;
the right of states to secede;
tarrifs;
and only much later, slavery.
Among other issues.
The key issues were the Constitutional rights of states and on that, the South was absolutely right.
As Dr. Walter E. Williams has said, if states don’t have the right to secede, then the constitutional protections of states’ rights mean nothing because the Federal government can do anything it wants and there is no way to stop it.
As for slavery, everyone admits that it was horrible and a black mark (no pun intended) on our history. But again, as Dr. Williams has noted, he is much better off today because his ancestors were brought here as slaves than he would be if they had been left in Africa.
And as James Madison said, "An inference from the doctrine that a single state has a right to secede at will from the rest, is that the rest would have an equal right to secede from it; in other words, to turn it, against its will, out of its union with them." Is he right?
As for slavery, everyone admits that it was horrible and a black mark (no pun intended) on our history. But again, as Dr. Williams has noted, he is much better off today because his ancestors were brought here as slaves than he would be if they had been left in Africa.
Then given the conditions in much of Africa today, would Dr. Williams or you advocate reintroducing slavery as a way of saving all those poor wretches in Darfur or the Congo or Rwanda from their miseries?