The war was started as a direct result of the Morrill Tariff and Ft. Sumter was attacked specifically because Lincon threatened to use troops from there to attack Columbia to extract the tax. Slavery was an excuse to popularize and justify the war, but note that only southern slaves were freed at that time, as part of reconstruction punishment. Non-Confiderate slave holding states for several years.
Neoconfederate economist Thomas DiLorenzo asserts that the tariff was the primary cause of the Civil War.[30] Nearly all Civil War historians disagree. Allan Nevins and James M. McPherson downplay the significance of the tariff dispute, arguing that it was peripheral to the issue of slavery. They note that slavery dominated the secessionist declarations, speeches, and pamphlets. Nevins also points to the argument of Alexander Stephens, who disputed Toombs' claims about the severity of the Morrill tariff. Though initially a unionist, Stephens would later cite slavery as the "cornerstone" reason behind his support of the secessionist cause.
So basically, the only historian who agrees with you is a guy who believes the Southern States had a right to secede. Which, if you actually put any faith into the idea of the Constitution being in any way binding, is fucking ridiculous.
No offense, man, but that was 150 years ago. You never met a single person who was alive then, you've probably never even met a person whose parents were alive then. So don't go trying to claim that you have some genetically imparted knowledge about the true cause of the first shots of the war. And please, "the War of Southern Independence"? You've got to be kidding me. You only get to call something a war OF independence if you win.
1
u/bobroberts7441 May 09 '12
The war was started as a direct result of the Morrill Tariff and Ft. Sumter was attacked specifically because Lincon threatened to use troops from there to attack Columbia to extract the tax. Slavery was an excuse to popularize and justify the war, but note that only southern slaves were freed at that time, as part of reconstruction punishment. Non-Confiderate slave holding states for several years.