Ugh, Civil War rehash

The South was just fighting for states rights.

Yeah sure they were.

I know the North was not fighting to end slavery but to keep one union, and whether that was really for fear that France or England would join the south and end up the boss of the country or it was about the power and control of having the bigger country I do not know.

But the congresses in the 1800s went through all kinds of mealy mouth compromises before the confederate states seceded -hello, the fugitive slave act before the Confederate states would let California join the union was NOT hardly about states rights.  Then there was trying to sneak new states in as "slave states"   ---Kansas anyone?  etc.  The South was damn well NOT all lathered up about states rights in general.

They were lathered up that more of the new western states joining the union were pro-ablolishionist and it was only a matter of time before the abolitionists had the needed majority to pass a federal law to make slavery illegal.   And the big money plantations owners controlled the media of the day and managed to convince joe Q public that this was a federal government stomping on individual and states rights issue even though most of the public did not own slaves.   Media organs probably  managed to create a picture of former slaves running wild and killing whites for revenge and probably that the southern economy would crash and I suppose there was a bit of "if we let them take away the plantations' slaves which they paid for darn it, they'll soon come after your few acres, your horses and cattle too etc"

But come on.  THE right the Southern rich and powerful (i.e. the political and donor class of that day)  feared that the feds were going to take away was their right to own slaves.    To own people as property.

And thanks to their unwillingness to find another way to manage their plantations, the country ended up ceding a lot of extra power to the federal government during the civil war and states never got it back.   Thanks a lot, you spoiled rich cads.

Now I know that bureaucracy and centralized power grow anyway so its not like I think "oh we'd have a serious 10th amendment still in play if only those slave owner politicians had not been so pig-headed"  but no, you don't get to claim that seceding was only about wanting freedom from federal over reach in other areas and had nothing to do with slavery.