“Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition.”
I would argue that the one thing different about the majority of northerners from that statement is one word: slavery. Take that word out and you’ve described the beliefs of most northerners. Keep in mind, too, that slavery was practiced by black Africans, so the one sliver of difference communicated here is a sense of white supremacy...a part which yankees, by in large, accepted as well.
Except for that itsy-bitsy detail that the cornerstone of America was laid on the assertion that “all men are created equal.”
In his speech Stephens explicitly claimed that the Founders were wrong in this belief and that the CSA was superior because it was founded upon his “great truth” that all men are NOT created equal.
I hope you can see the considerable difference between a belief system founded on human equality, however poorly expressed in practice, and one explicitly founded on a belief in permanent human inequality.
One can evolve towards greater equality in practice, as its ideals are put more effectively into use. As the other implements its ideals, it is likely to start finding additional differences between human groups justifying their differential treatment.
Not to mention the fairly obvious difficulties with deciding which group people fall into. Many (most) humans are neither Black nor White. How would Mr. Stephens classify Japanese or Indonesians?
Commercial interests brought slavery to the USA for the same reason that illegal emigration has been allowed to persist.. Powerful greedy people wanted cheap (illegal?) labor then as they do now. The politicians then figured out a way to capitalize on the divide, then as they do now, and that’s where the “racism” comes into play.