[BroJoeK]

central_va: "For the South is was a war to get away form the North.
There was never at any time a threat of Northern conquest.
The thought is preposterous both then and now. "

Here's why that's not true:

1. The Confederacy challenged the Union militarily in every slave-state & territory (except Delaware), whether it had voted to secede or not.
   There were seven: Union Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, New Mexico & Arizona.

2. Every Confederate, by nature & education believed (and still does) the best defense was a good offense, so Confederate forces fought in every Union state & territory they could reach, in addition to the above, seven more: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kansas and even guerilla forces in Colorado, California and Vermont.

So sure, you can say "Confederates didn't want Northern conquest", but the Confederacy officially claimed three Union states (Kentucky, Missouri & West Virginia) three Union territories (Oklahoma, New Mexico & Arizona) and sent military forces into eight others.

That helped make the Confederacy an existential threat to the United States.

central_va: " Face it Lincoln's war was optional and he could have both prevented and stopped it at any time.
He didn't want to."

And Jefferson Davis could have ended his war on any day before April 9,1865 with much better peace terms than he fought on & on & on to achieve: Unconditional Surrender.

But, as you said, he didn't want to.

[central_va]

Good God nobody in the South thought the South could conquer the North. Like I said that is preposterous. The North had 3 times the people and all the industrial resources it needed. Everyone knew that then and knows that now looking back.