You missed my point entirely
Slavery was the issue, yes, but because the Fed was trying to force the states to eliminate it, and it was not up to the federal government to decide that - it was a state issue.
Not that Slavery was good, and should have been ‘allowed’, but it was not a federal issue.
Imagine if the issue was about the Federal govt forcing the states to buy health care. do you see what I mean now?
It WAS about states rights. Slavery was just a vehicle to assert federal power over states rights.
Just like today, if a state tried to “opt out” of the left’s socialism,
they’d demand that the fedgov FORCE them to participate.
Leftists can’t stand the idea of someone doing something they don’t approve of.
Please provide evidence for this. There was no attempt by the Federal government to force, or even influence, slave states to abolish slavery prior to the 1860 election.
The issue in that election was entirely one of whether:
A. Slavery would be prohibited in the territories (Lincoln).
B. Slavery would be allowed to expand into the territories, with a federal slave code enforced to protect it (Bell and Breckenridge).
C. To allow slavery or not in a territory would be left up to the people of that territory (Douglas).
Abolishing slavery in states wasn't even discussed.
Except that the Fed wasn’t trying to force the states to eliminate it. Lincoln said specifically that, whatever his personal feelings about slavery aside, he recognized that he was powerless to change what could only be done through congressional action as an amendment to the constitution.
Quite to the contrary, the south imposed their “value system” onto the north by compelling northerners to intercept and return escaped slaves.
And you’ve missed the historical facts completely. The Fed was not trying to force the states to eliminate slavery and Lincoln stated that he did not have the power to do that while the states were all a part of the union under the Constitution. He noted that it was not an issue that the Fed could rule on. If it was, Dred Scott would have been thrown out even after the SC decision. Lincoln knew that any federal ruling forcing abolition on states within the union was unconstitutional, just like obamacare is unconstitutional. Now, once the southern states foolishly seceded and stated that they were seceding over slavery, they no longer had the protection of the Constitution. Even with that, Lincoln did not declare emancipation for several years in hopes of pulling the south back and ending the war.
It was all about slavery, and states rights was a post-defeat excuse for the southern leadership to take heat off of them over why they ruined their states over an “asset” only a few (of them) owned. State’s Rights is another fine piece of democrat mythology/propaganda.
The North was not asserting any power over state rights to hold slaves. The North did assert that the secessionist states had no right to secede, over slavery or for any other excuse.