The right of any state to secede has been debated since 1861. Can you list any other specifically states rights issues that led to secession? I can't come up with any one SR issue that was debated before and after the war. Also, along these lines, Northern grievances that led to war included the claim that during the 1850s Southern slaveholders (for example, Secretary of War Jefferson Davis and VP John C Breckinridge) or men sympathetic to them (Presidents Pierce and Buchanan) controlled all three branches of government. Republican made significant gains in Congress in the election of 1858, but other than that, I can't think of an effective counter-argument. Can you?