This could turn into somewhat of a history lesson.Just remember,the victors write the books.To me slavery was on it’s way out.It was about taxes,and expansion of slavery.The government stepping in and telling states what they can and can not do . Sounds almost like modern times.
To the average Southerner in 1861 it wasn't.
First, the victors didn’t write the books. Everyone did. Jeff Davis, a loser in every sense of the word, wrote two.
Second, the federal government didn’t tell states what to do, outside where they had clear authority in the constitution. The southern states rebelled even before Lincoln took office. Nothing Lincoln did can possibly justify the previous event of secession. The tariffs were low when the southern states pretended secession, and so they can not assert that the tariff was a cause of seccession.
For the south it was about slavery. Shameful, but true.