[Wallace T.]

The initial motivation for the North to oppose the secession of the Southern states was not concerned about the continuation of slavery. In fact, the Lincoln Administration proposed a constitutional amendment that would have guaranteed the continuation of slavery. The Southern States seceded because they were losing their former equality within the Union. Most immigration into the United States was going to the North, because of the growth of industry and the opening up of the frontier for small farmers. Therefore the North dominated the House of Representatives. With the admission of Kansas as a free state, the Senate would become Northern dominated.

By and large, Southern state governments were dominated by the plantation owners who fancied themselves as the inheritors of chivalry and honor. The dominance of the North in the US government meant that tariffs would be raised to protect domestic manufacturers. Southern plantation owners had become quite wealthy due to cheap labor from their slaves and and wanted to buy less expensive manufactured goods from Europe. At the time the South had little industry other than railroads to transport cotton, their main export, to textile mills in Europe. While the Southern secessionist use a lot of rhetoric defending their social order and the benefits of slavery, the real motivation for secession was economic. The ruling class in the South believed that they could conduct business with Europe, and that England and France would provide military support should the North invade.

[Jonty30]

It is said that all wars are economic in nature.

I do believe that South is not innocent of this matter and I don’t mean to give that impression that they are innocent, but the North was far less innocent and virtuous on the matter than what is taught.