Article neatly dodges the State’s Right issues (which included slavery as a capital investment), of selective tariffs, and many other economic threats to the South.
The road to this conflict was paved with the Northern states successful efforts to count each slave as 3/5ths of a man, during the creation of the Constitution. Reason: the South wanted to increase their representation based on population, and to count slaves. The North did not want the South counting them. The compromise kept the Northern hegemony in the Congress with the greater population/representation. The issue always was.... power.
Further, more sane individuals proposed compensating slave owners, in the North and South both, by paying them for each and freeing the slaves. The war would have been averted.
That was not only a sensible suggestion, but the actual method used to abolish slavery in England two decades earlier.
However, the Democrats in the south would have none of it and rushed succession resolutions through seven states before even giving ample opportunity for debate.
Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas were actually opposed to succession up until Lincoln set troops across their borders.
If tariffs were such a big issue, Southerners could have stayed in Congress and kept the rates from increasing as much as they did.
The road to this conflict was paved with the Northern states successful efforts to count each slave as 3/5ths of a man, during the creation of the Constitution. Reason: the South wanted to increase their representation based on population, and to count slaves.
What would the just answer have been? To give the White minority population of South Carolina more seats in Congress to "represent" the men and women they held in bondage?
The North did not want the South counting them. The compromise kept the Northern hegemony in the Congress with the greater population/representation. The issue always was.... power.
Well, no. White Southerners were overrepresented in Congress. From 1810 to 1860, the Speaker of the House was much more often a Southerner than not. So was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. I believe the president was more likely to be Southern born than not in the years from 1820 to 1850. And this at a time when the free citizen population of the North was larger.
Further, more sane individuals proposed compensating slave owners, in the North and South both, by paying them for each and freeing the slaves. The war would have been averted.
That wasn't going to happen. Slaveowners wanted the slaves and a country of their own, not money.
The real John Singleton Mosby admitted that slavery was the main cause of the war. And he was there at the time. Why can't you?