[x]

In 1860, Southerners were convinced that Republicans were abolitionists and that Lincoln's election would mean the eventual end of slavery. It doesn't really matter if Republicans were actually abolitionists or not. Slaveowners feared that they were, and that led the Deep South states to secede.

Southerners weren't necessarily wrong. Policies that weren't explicitly calculated to support slavery could be expected to eventually weaken it. That was what the slaveowners thought and feared. Strangely, people who defend the secessionists don't want to admit any of this.

[DiogenesLamp]

Strangely, people who defend the secessionists don't want to admit any of this.

And strangely, people who defend the invaders who started the bloodshed don't want to admit that the Northern states offered a constitutional amendment to protect slavery indefinitely.