Reply #62: Answer me this, since you are such a self proclaimed Civil War buff [View All]

If the Civil War was mostly about states rights, as so many Southern apologists claim, why, in each and every single pre-amble, preface, or first paragraph of the Southern states' declarations of seccession, it is slavery that is given pride of place, not "states' rights"? Why is such pride of place also given in the A of C? Why are so many references given to "our particular institution", in reference to slavery?

Sorry, but the whole "state's rights" meme is nothing more than a polite fig leaf added after the fact by the generations following the Civil War, in order to cast the South in a better light. Go back to the source documents, the documents of the government, the letters of the leaders, the papers of the time, and you will find again and again that indeed the true cause for the Southern treachery is that they wished to preserve slavery at all costs, including seccession.

You and your father aren't the only Civil War historians around.