"a great party was organized for the purpose of obtaining the administration of the Government, with the avowed object of using its power for the total exclusion of the slave States from all participation in the benefits of the public domain acquired by all the States in common, whether by conquest or purchase; of surrounding them entirely by States in which slavery should be prohibited; of thus rendering the property in slaves so insecure as to be comparatively worthless, and thereby annihilating in effect property worth thousands of millions of dollars. This party, thus organized, succeeded in the month of November last in the election of its candidate for the Presidency of the United States."
Speech (in part) of Jeff Davis, Montgomery, April 29, 1861.
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With out the slavery issue, there would have been NO Secession, then the war. Slavery was the biggest issue for the secession of the slave states.

The “dead horse” here is everyone stepping around that one issue that they try to deny was the cause, no matter what the slave state leaders were telling folk in 1860-61.

I suggest that those who scream so much about Lincoln, (I don’t like him either) need to look a lot deeper into the Southern view point at that time period, but be prepared, you may not like all you see. The “ Black Republicans" and the Secession mongers have a lot to answer for.

Too bad I have to be the devil’s advocate repeatedly on this BB, but so be it.

Kevin Dally