‘Day One, the Northern States were fighting it.’
On this point you are in error. The first state to abolish slavery was Pennsylvania, in 1780, due likely to the dominant Quakers. Since the northern states used gradual abolition, there were still a few slaves in New Jersey in 1860.
DISCLAIMER AGAIN FOR THE 47th TIME: Yankees are NOT Perfect. Their bankers supported slavery etc. etc. All of which is true.
With respect, our current constitution was adopted in 1787. Here were the states that had abolished slavery by then:
MA: 1783
NH: 1783
CT: 1784
RI: 1784
PA: 1780
VT: 1777
Only NY (1799) and NJ (1804) had official slavery AFTER our Constitution was adopted and even those two states voluntarily ended it.
If you want, I can post reams of articles during our Constitutional Convention when the Northern States opposed Slavery. Nothing dominated the Convention as much as slavery did
DISCLAIMER: Yankee bankers BAD! They financed slaves. Also, some Yankees still had slaves. ALL TRUE FACTS
STILL, that does not changes the fact that the Southern states were not governed by the will of the majority. Any “decision” they made is invalid as it did not represent a majority opinion of all the people that lived in that state.
As I have said REPEATEDLY, if a truly free state voted for Independence (even today!) I would say “Go For It”. Heck, every day I go to sleep hoping that NY and CA would declare independence and be gone from our Republic!
When we broke free from the British, it was the majority will of our people.. That cannot be said..of many states in the South.
Enslavement is evil. It is the twin of abortion. Controlling another human’s body.