[x]

It turned out that Southern fears were justified because in the war they started Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and helped put the 13th Amendment in the Constitution. That does not mean that if they did nothing that he would have or could have forced Emancipation on them.

But you quoted me out of context. My point was that if Southerners had stayed in Congress, they could have limited the increase in the tariff through tactics like the filibuster, if they had really wanted to. But they didn't care as much about the tariff as later mythmakers want to believe they did.

[jeffersondem]

“My point was that if Southerners had stayed in Congress, they could have limited the increase in the tariff through tactics like the filibuster, if they had really wanted to.”

I hate to be persistent but the filibuster is not a constitutional provision. That means it is not in the constitution.

The filibuster is a rule of the Senate. Changing the rules of the Senate does not require a constitutional amendment. Senate rules can be changed relatively easily, especially when the majority wants to “get” the minority.

Your use of the term “if they had really wanted to” provides an insight into your understanding of the nation's prewar dynamics, and contrasts with the understanding of world historians - like Winston Churchill - who called the North/South conflict the “least avoidable war.”