[BroJoeK]

from the piece -- South Carolinian James Tradewell:

"Save the Union if you can.
But rather than have Kansas refused admission under the Lecompton Constitution, let it perish in blood and fire."

Note: "perish in blood and fire", not "withdraw in peaceful, constitutionally valid disunion."

Everyone then understood that secession meant war, nobody pretended otherwise.

[colorado tanker]

It’s easy for a hothead to spout of. At the time, no one knew how truly godawful the Civil War would be in death, suffering and destruction.