Well, you say THE issue was "states' rights," but don't quote a single word of any Confederate leader making that case. ...
The did state State's Right's, but it was primarily the State's Right to Slavery.
As I stated on the other thread, had the previous election been won by a republican, the start of the war would have likely been 1856.
If you'll indulge me, I'll repost:
Let's go back a few more years, to the the presidential race of 1856. The first time ever a Republican was on the ballot: John C. Fremont. Slavery was a Yoooooge issue. All consuming.
Fremont was against the expansion of slavery, and of course was despised in the South.
Here is a campaign ribbon from 1856:
Here is an 1856 anti-Fremont ribbon:
Heh. What do you think they were trying to impress there?
The South threatened at that time, if an anti-slavery President was elected - it would mean Civil War and "
the Conservative South (soon) will burst forth in a carnival of blood..."
Bold Avowals--The Election of Buchanan to be a Stop Towards Disunion. - Article - NYTimes.com | 1856
<snip>
"The great object of the South in supporting Buchanan is to promote and extend the perpetuation of the "Conservative institution of Slavery." And the votes by which it is hoped he may be elected, are to become the basis of a secession movement and the formation of a Southern Slave Confederacy..."
]Now, how's this for traitorous:
As the 1856 election drew near, a convention of Governors of the Southern slave states was secretly held at Raleigh, North Carolina. Jefferson Davis -- then the Secretary of War under Franklin Pierce, was full aware of this.
"The object was to devise a scheme of rebellion at that time, in the event of the election of Colonel John C. Fremont, the Republican candidate for the Presidency. "
Henry Wise, Governor of Virginia at the time
"...afterward boasted that, had Fremont been elected, he should have marched, at the head of twenty thousand men, to Washington, taken possession of the Capitol, and prevented the inauguration of the President elect. "
Source: Pictorial history of the Civil War in the United States of America - Lossing,
1866
Well, as we know, Buchanan was elected, and that staved off the fury for a few more years.
And get this: James Mason of Virginia, who was the leading Senator,
wrote to US Sec. of War, Jeff Davis, later Confederate President, directly requesting him to arm the Southern states for war against the US -- a four full years before -- in any event a Republican would become President.
This was the letter
"I have a letter from WISE, of the 27th, full of spirit. He says the Governments of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Louisiana, have already agreed to rendezvous at Raleigh, and others will—this in your most private ear.
He says, further, that he had officially requested you to exchange with Virginia, on fair terms of difference, percussion for flint muskets. I don't know the usage or power of the Department in such cases, but if it can be done, even by liberal construction, I hope you will accede. … Virginia probably has more arms than the other Southern States, and would divide in case of need. In a letter yesterday to a Committee in South Carolina. I gave it as my judgment,
in the event of FREMONT's election, the South should not pause, but proceed at once to "immediate, absolute, and eternal separation."
Had Fremont been elected, the date of the start of the Civil War would have likely been 1856.
