Kevin, if you are going to identify the Texas Declaration of Secession, don't overlook the other primary complaints. The Texans were bitter that the federal government failed to adequately protect the state from Indian attacks and border outlaws from Mexico. That was all part of the annexation deal.

Very few people, North or South, thought of blacks as equals. To most Southerners, they were valuable chattel at the least and good neighbors at best. To most Northerners, blacks( free or enslaved) were a curse. Five states, including Illinois and Ohio, passed laws prohibiting their immigration, regardless of legal status.

Had serious proposals been made by Northern leaders to enact a provision for the government to purchase freedom for ALL slaves, as was done in England and France, there would likely have been much support in the South. Had they ALL been shipped to Africa, then Lincoln and his political thugs would have been more than happy.

As for the federalist system, it quit working. The Northern states used their Legislative majority to rob the Cotton States of revenue by egregious tariffs and there was no relief.

The WBTS was a war of attrition and conquest, like almost all others. The Lincoln regime got what it wanted, Subjugation of the South.