I would question “The South had the moral high ground with States Rights. It was the Southern States that begged and pleaded with the Buchanan Administration to use the Army if necessary to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act in some Northern States. To join the Confederacy, you had to make slavery legal, your citizens could not decide they did not want slavery, then join the Confederacy. In 1862, the Confederate Government gave itself the authority to enter the sovereign states of the Confederacy and seize your citizens for service the Confederate Army. Also in 1862, regardless of what term of service you enlisted for in your state militia, the Confederate Government voided that contract, and your new term of service was at the pleasure of the Confederate Government. The Confederate Government ordered its respective states to not ship the 1862 cotton crop to buyers in Europe. These actions are hardly the States Rights moral high ground.
Do not disagree. I think the initial fight to “save the union” was morally week compared to states rights. Wars are emotional things, do not underestimate the power of soldiers with a superior cause.