What kind of "excuse" are you looking for?
Lincoln and Grant lead the war to preserve the Union and free the slaves -- and most people today think that was a good thing, despite whatever other flaws Lincoln or Grant might have.
The South fought to destroy the Union and preserve slavery -- and most people today think that was a bad thing, despite whatever other virtues the Southern Cause might have.
Defenders of the Southern Cause also like to claim that Abraham Lincoln was really Barrack Hussein Obama in disguise, with his huge, bloated, all-controlling, all-consuming Federal Government choking the economic and cultural life out of America.
Well, that's just fantasy.
The post-war Federal Government of Lincoln and his Republican successors was circa 10% the size it is today.
So they are not to blame for our current plight -- Progressives and liberal Democrats are.
Among the most liberal and progressive of them all, of course, was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who won the states of the Old Confederacy by margins of 80% and 90%.
So, yes, I blame the South as much as anyone else for the long-term march of socialism in America.
Teddy Roosevelt gave the Progressives the cover they needed to penetrate the political apparatus of the US. His “trust busting” made a mockery of American free market and set the place for heavier and deeper involvement of government in business.
Political entrepreneurs have ever been the bane of free peoples.