Well on that we agree albeit you are significantly more long winded than me. But we will never agree on this so let it stand as is… you think 700,000 men died over a few percentage points of tariffs. I say they died over something’s far more important than that… union, the constitution, and the true fact that all men were created equal.
We're not just talking about a few percentage points as you would have it. The Tariff of Abominations in the 1820s was crushing the Southern economy. People in the South remembered what that was like from a generation earlier and did not want to see it again. Furthermore, unlike the compromise the Nullification Crisis brought about, they knew there would be no way they could get those crushing tariffs lifted this time. Them declaring independence was a matter of economic survival for them. Otherwise, they would be reduced to the status of being colonies to Northern interests....which is what actually happened.
Its quite clear to anybody who studies the issue, both sides did not go to war over slavery. They both said so at the time and the North did not even choose to make slavery an issue in the conflict until it had been ongoing for 2 years already. The whole "dying to make men free" propaganda was pushed after the fact to try to cover for the fact that a war Lincoln started thinking it would be a walkover (only 75,000 men for 90 days) ended up being an extremely costly 4 year + bloodbath. They couldn't very well tell Northern voters who had lost family members or seen loved ones mangled and crippled for life that they had paid such a high price for money and empire....even though that was the reality.