[Non-Sequitur]

I don’t recall the White Northern population exactly clamoring for Equal Rights for Blacks. As far as that goes, most of the were even ambilivant about Slavery.

Yeah but it's you Southern types who keep insisting that the South rebelled in defense of its rights. I'm just reminding you that for one third your population, no rights were granted, or even considered.

IIRC, Grant said that if he thought the War was about Slavery, he would resin and offer his sword to the other side.

You must not be recalling correctly because if memory serves Grant was a Union general right up to the end. And after the war he was saying, ""...As soon as slavery fired upon the flag it was felt, we all felt, even those who did not object to slaves, that slavery must be destroyed. We felt that it was a stain to the Union that men should be bought and sold like cattle."

[BnBlFlag]

Well, why didn’t he get rid of his own slaves then. Even after the War, he objected to giving up his own slaves because “good help is hard to find”!

[EarthBound]

The central point is that the Federal gov't had become destructive of its ends towards the Southern states, and so they seceded.

We can argue back and forth whether or not it was "legal". The Southern States joined the Union team, then decided they'd rather make their own team.

Washington et al. did the same thing when we broke from Britain. The only difference between the two is that the North won, and so the victor writes the history.