As usual, your claim is simply uneducated and unsubstantiated. Just looking at the southern presidents one can see that Jefferson went to a southern college (William and Mary), as did Monroe (W&M), as did Harrison (Hampden-Sydney), as did Tyler (W&M), as did Polk (UNC). Jefferson also founded a southern college (UVA) as did Patrick Henry (Hampden-Sydney). The University of Georgia was founded in 1785 - the first of any state to charter a university of its own. The University of South Carolina was founded in 1801. The University of North Carolina was founded in 1789, Tennessee in 1794, Alabama in 1831, Ole Miss in 1848, the predecessor of Tulane in 1834, and Florida in 1853. The Republic of Texas even had its first college operating in 1844. Put another way, almost every single southern state had one or more universities chartered within their borders before the civil war. The only exception I can even think of is Arkansas, which was a rural frontier state at the time.
Apparently you don't believe the facts and figures easily obtained from the Census regarding such matters.
The census data is very clear. Here are the 1850 stats for number of colleges in each state:
ALABAMA 5
ARKANSAS 3
CALIFORNIA 0
CONNECTICUT 4
DELAWARE 2
FLORIDA 0
GEORGIA 13
ILLINOIS 6
INDIANA 11
IOWA 2
KENTUCKY 15
LOUISIANA 5
MAINE 3
MARYLAND 11
MASSACHUSETTS 6
MICHIGAN 3
MISSISSIPPI 11
MISSOURI 9
NEW HAMPSHIRE 1
NEW JERSEY 4
NEW YORK 18
NORTH CAROLINA 5
OHIO 26
PENNSYLVANIA 22
RHODE ISLAND 1
SOUTH CAROLINA 8
TENNESSEE 17
TEXAS 2
VERMONT 5
VIRGINIA 12
WISCONSIN 2
You read that correctly, fake-it. In 1850 the state of Mississippi had more than twice as many colleges than the state of Massachusetts. In 1850 massachusetts also had fewer colleges than the states of Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Virginia. Those states plus Alabama, Louisiana, and North Carolina all had more colleges than Connecticut, more colleges than Rhode Island, more than Maine, more than New Hampshire, more than Wisconsin, more than Michigan, more than New Jersey, more than Iowa and as many as or more than Vermont. Only three yankee states had more colleges than all southern states - Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York.
Lincoln's lack of education does not change the fact that he was one of the most brilliant politicians who ever lived
Did I ever say otherwise? He was still an uneducated and notoriously crass country bumpkin though.
Gee one would think that I claimed there were NO colleges in the South of course I didn't. Next I guess you will pretend that there were just as many educational establishments there as the North. Nor did I claim that none of the leaders went to Southern colleges and even you can't change the fact that far more of the ruling class members went to Northern colleges for their education. And I suppose you will pretend that the colleges in the South were just as good.
That list is interesting but the quality of education available at the vast majority of the schools in Mississippi
barely qualified as higher education at any rate. There were 81 schools in the Confederate states mostly new and without much merit but that won't stop you from pretending they were the equivalents of those with almost 200 yrs of history behind them.