The cause for disunion was pushed over several issues from 1830 to 1860- Taxation, Tariffs, the formation of States, the Congressional territorial laws, the stoppage of slavery expansion, unfair trade, and finally Republican support of abolitionist terrorism against the South. All of which come into a mix of grievances by the election of Abraham Lincoln. The fire-eaters carried at one time or another all these "Southern Wrongs" with their platform of disunion. Which ever grievance stuck with the population is the one that carried the day as long as that grievance push for a Southern Confederacy. John Brown did more to advanced their cause than Lincoln did.

Southerners (Unionist) who were against disunion, secession, and the Southern Confederacy in the decades prior to 1860 wrote how it would destroy their economy and the eliminate the protections to their institutions (slavery) given by the U.S. Constitution. Southerners who pushed for secession in 1861 knew that they were placing their institution of slavery in the cross-hairs of destruction and possible abolition by creating the Confederacy- they put at risk their property and economy to form a more perfect union, which was more important to them, for their own safety. The fire-eaters lost some of their political powers with the creation of the Confederate Constitution and a new leaders emerged, whose goal was to protect the South from Northern invasion and Federal control over and above pushing for old and worn out ideas.

Again, what else would a common Southerner, leave his home and family to risk it all for? To kill and die for? The fire-eaters would have us believe Southerners would lay down their lives for the right of Slavery as written in the Constitution...bunk. Southerners never had that kind of fanatical mentality over any cause but self protection. The history of American settlers into the Spanish and French territories of the Gulf Coast shows they would follow any government or Kingdom as long as it protected them and their profits. They would follow any flag that gave them happiness.

Joe is correct, if the South was truly fanatical about protecting the spirit of the Constitution by disunion, they would have done so decades prior to Lincoln's election- there were many examples to do so. However, they cared more about their happiness than ideas- until they were terrorized out of their minds in the summer of 1860- backed by Lincolns call for invaded the South in 1861- they were mostly content (to the frustration of the fire-eaters).

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David Upton