[achilles2000]

Your sourcing, as I’ve pointed out, is partial and fails to even attempt to come to terms with that the mix of reasons was not the same for the North and the Deep South or the Upper South.

[Tau Food]

Listen, I have to assume that the secessionists themselves knew more than you do about their motivations when they attempted to secede from the Union and we know that they claimed that they were desperately trying to protect the institution of slavery. You seem to want to champion their cause, but then you stab them in the back by distorting their views. They were not ashamed to be openly pro-slavery.

As for Lincoln, if we could have today a government no larger than it was in 1865, few people would complain about it being too large. Lincoln has nothing to do with the size and scope of our government today. Unfortunately, most folks today like government more than you or I do. But, that isn't because Lincoln over parked his buggy somewhere or because he violated some citizen's rights. We are responsible for our government today, not Lincoln. Of course, you know that - you must know that.

[BroJoeK]

achilles2000: "Your sourcing, as I’ve pointed out, is partial and fails to even attempt to come to terms with that the mix of reasons was not the same for the North and the Deep South or the Upper South."

Well... Border States (Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri) refused to declare secession, for any reason, slavery or otherwise.

Upper South States (Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee & Arkansas) also refused to secede, so long as the issue at hand was only protecting slavery.
They only declared secession after the Confederacy first provoked, then started and formally declared war on the United States.
Then Upper South states felt forced to chose sides, and naturally chose the Confederacy, even though large areas of each remained loyal to the Union (i.e., Western Virginia).

But the Deep South (South Carolina through Texas), which first began declaring secession in December 1860, expressed no major reasons except protecting slavery from potential threats represented by newly elected Abraham Lincoln's "Black Republicans".

So the fact is that protecting slavery (and by their own words no other major issue) drove the Deep South to first declare secession, then form a Confederacy and soon formally declare war on the United States.