All a function of it's optimal nature as a Sea Port. Optimal Geographical features are why New York became wealthy. That, and laws designed to favor it, as well as the fact that it's wealth and power gives it leverage to move the government.
But you are missing the point. New York and New England used their influence on the government to stop their Newly acquired Southern competition from intercepting the existing trade with Europe at the expense of New York and New England.
That is why the USA went to war. To serve the interests of the Business Lords of New York.
New York (Rome), Attacked and Destroyed the Competing Cities (Carthage) in the South. They did it to maintain their existing monopoly on trade and manufacturing.
Had they left the South alone, it would have caused massive financial upheaval in New York and New England. Therefore they could not afford to let them do this.
Hence War.
It was a war of subjugation on the Northern side, and a war for Independence on the Southern side.
DiogenesLamp: “New York and New England used their influence on the government to stop their Newly acquired Southern competition from intercepting the existing trade with Europe at the expense of New York and New England.
That is why the USA went to war.
To serve the interests of the Business Lords of New York.”
Total & complete rubbish since from the beginnings, Southerners ruled in Washington DC.
Nothing happened they didn’t want or approve of, including the growth of Northern ports.
If you claim that secessionists formed a new Confederacy in order to empower Southern ports, then you are faced with the fact that’s not the reason they gave **at the time**.
Protecting slavery was the reason, the only major reason they gave.
As for why the Confederacy started war at Fort Sumter, the immediate reason was to enforce their sovereignty and humiliate the Union, with the longer-term goal of forcing Upper South states — Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee & Arkansas — to leave the Union & join the Confederacy’s war on the United States.
So, did New York “power elites” somehow force Lincoln to call up 75,000 troops to restore Fort Sumter & other Federal properties?
No, Lincoln merely did what his Oath of Office required, regardless of support, or lack of it from New York.
As it happened, more New Yorkers supported the South, and opposed civil war than in any other Northern city.
So whatever advice Lincoln received from New Yorkers was certainly mixed, pro & con.
That meant Lincoln had to chart his own course, which he did.
Remember, Lincoln was a westerner, an moderate abolitionist and lawyer for railroads.
So his knowledge of or interest in New York financial interests was quite limited.
Even Lincoln’s Secretary of state, Seward, while from New York, came from upstate, not Wall Street, and was a major voice for peace before Fort Sumter.
So all you’re doing is denying historical reality in order to impose nonsensical propaganda where it doesn’t belong.