I believe we are all very much in agreement. The threat of an ever intrusive, centralized overbearing federal government that defied the Constitution and had contempt for federalism bound Southerners together. The Southern Confederacy was their (our) last chance to salvage the liberty delivered by their grandparents, through much work and sacrifice before, during and after the First American Revolution. Southerners chose to exercise their God given and Constitutional right to secede from the United States and the Lincoln regime and the Black Republicans commenced a war of conquest. An unnecessary war except for the ultimate goal of Centralizing federal dominion over the States.