But of course, that is the Big Lie -- the Lie that all good Southerners tell each other, and some even believe.
The truth is, in 1860 the North did nothing, except elect Lincoln & Republicans.
And even that could not have happened if the South had not first had a big hissy-fit with their own Northern Democrats, splitting up their party and letting the minority Republicans win.
Then they used their self engineered political defeat as their excuse for secession -- then provoked war, declared war, and sent their forces into every Union state and territory surrounding the South.
So Northern Abolitionists were just the South's excuse, not their real reason.
Their real reason was to take total control over their Slave Empire -- no future interference from Washington.
Umm, no. This is not the Big Lie (never heard it called that, btw, that’s a new one), it’s the truth and the election of 1860 had nothing to do with it. The ACW was unavoidable from the very time that the Founding Fathers refused to deal with slavery during the Constitutional Convention. They may have postponed it for a time, but it just made matters worse. The principle of “be sure your sins will find you out” was at work here.
You need to stop saying that unless you can produce a declaration of War. Which you will never be able to do. The Confederacy never declared war. The Union never declared war either.