It was the cause of their deep emotion. States Rights actually meant less, or they would not have imposed the fugitive slave law on the northern states. That was a clear violation of state sovereignty.
“States rights actually meant less, or they would not have imposed the fugitive slave law on the northern states. That was a clear violation of state sovereignty”
This is an especially weak argument. Just because the South used the federal government for certain things does not mean it can’t be for states rights. For instance, you wouldn’t say such a thing as no state was for state rights because they all believed in national defense. The fugitive slave act was not opposed in the North except by fringe figures. Lincoln himself proposed a constitutional amendment to strengthen it.
Hard as it is to believe, they didn’t like blacks, either, and didn’t want them around.