My argument here is NOT to defend slavery from whomever exploited it as a means to financial ends (FACT: BOTH the South AND North were economic beneficiaries of slavery.) Btw -- despite your stats, most of those who fought and died for the Southern Army were NOT slave-owners.
That said, it was the preservation of the American Union and NOT the destruction and end of Southern slavery that induced Lincoln to send armies South to coerce BY FORCE the South into remaining part of the Union. THAT my friend IS "Tyranny."
The North’s primary purpose was to prevent southern independence. It is the North that betrayed the Founding principle of “consent of the governed” from that celebrated secession document, the Declaration of Independence.
The South sought to peacefully secede, as technically was indeed their right. And again, I am not defending the South on the principle of preserving slavery, but its right to determine its own sovereignty to govern and live as IT deemed fit -- right or wrong.
"Slavery" was NOT the principle nor prime issue for Lincoln at all -- until he realized it could be used as a political propaganda tool.
The north went to war in response to being attacked by the confederates...
Unadulterated baloney.
Upon baiting and blockading the South at Charleston, Lincoln had provoked his war. The South merely began defending itself.
It has been said and repeated -- at ANY time during the war from beginning to end, Lincoln was willing to have allowed the South its slavery (a movement was already well underway to end it) IF ONLY the South would surrender its own sovereignty, end its secession movement, and return (as punished economic slaves and red-headed step-children) to the Union.
The southern states made war against it’s northern brother states. Again, if you seek tyranny you need go no further. Had the slavocracy truly wanted a peaceful secession and independence there were ways to achieve it. They clearly did not.
BTW: The blockade of Charleston did not occur until after the rebels attacked the federal fort Sumter.
Act like red-headed step-children, get treated like red-headed step-children.
Just a reminder; The South lost the war it started.