You mentioned States Rights making a comeback, the inference being that States Rights led to the Civil War. On the related topic, different people on this board have referred to secession being a response to the Federal government steadily encroaching upon rights of the people. As Yankees accurately assessed the government, plantation owners or men favored by them controlled the Presidency and the Supreme Court, and Democrats could manage the Senate, I've wondered how the Federal government could be consolidating so much power during the antebellum period. If I'm not mistaken, that began during the Lincoln administration and continued through Reconstruction.

In other words, how did States Rights and the power of the Federal government lead to secession?