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Although it's interesting reading these statements you've posted, they don't address the point GOPcapitalist orginally made concerning MacPherson's article. They only show the propaganda spouted by the South to rally people to "The Cause". Pointing to a minority within the opposing side and proclaiming it the majority opinion is a classic tactic of those who wish to obfuscate the complexity of the issues in their favor. You'll win more people over if you find something from the North, during a mainstream political event, which backs up your claim.

Too many big words. Tired.

I posted long portions of the Articles because I, at least, found them interesting. After reading at length that the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery, it is interesting to read what the southerners themselves said.

If you re-read them, they state rather clearly that what pushed them over the edge, after years of increasing hostility by the northern states toward the slave issue, the North had elected the hated abolitionists to office, lead by the most outspoken of abolitionists. They knew then that they had no chance of getting fair treatment.

I am seeing here responses that the Articles are meaningless because they represent the opinion of only the rich planters, and I am also seeing that they are meaningless because they were only propaganda to ralley the masses.

I am seeing that the North didn't really care about the slave issue, and that Lincoln's anti-slavery rhetoric was only to ralley the masses.

But the South was sufficiently convinced that it pushed them over the edge.

Tariffs were certainly an issue. But only the Articles of Secession of Georgia mentions it, but makes it clear, again, that while that is an irritant, it is the intractability of the slave issue that is pushing them over the edge. None of the other states mention that as a cause.

The blockade of the South was not about collecting tariffs. Up until the war started, tariffs matter, and you patrol for smugglers. That is not a blockade, unless the present day Customs Service and Coast Guard are presently blockading the US. Once the shooting started, though, you had a real blockade, as you would expect in wartime. It made Texas a major player, in that the blockade forced the arms traders to use Mexico. A lot of Texans, maybe some of my relatives, made good money trucking goods to and from Mexico.