[moehoward]

"It (slavery) was a probably the flint that sparked the tender, but there were other issues of course."

The more I read, the less I believe it had to do with it.

"..... making the agrarian south less and less economically relevant."

But for some reason relevant enough to go to war over.

[Bidimus1]

One tends to fight when fear is involved (fight of flight) the Slave states could not leave therefore flight was not an option.

There is a good LEGAL argument that the CSA or any state could succeed but when the State of South Carolina fired on Ft Sumter that was caucus belli.