Has to be one of the most ignorant statements I have read here. Unfortunately all too common. But the winners do get to write the history books, so you just don't know any better.
So the losers couldn't write books? Every rationalization of historic crimes sinks to calling their opposition “ignorant” or worse.
Prior to the war, Southern states' supposed concern with states' rights didn’t restrain them from imposing federal demands that Northern states return runaway slaves. And early in the war, Alexander Stephens said slavery [rather than states' rights] was “the cornerstone of the Confederacy". He changed his mind later. And for all the confederacy's supposed concern with states' rights, their constitution denied states the right to interfere with federal protection of slavery. In other words - states 'rights extended only so far as to protect a state’s right to legalize slavery, not their right to outlaw it within their state borders.
If I lost a war for something as evil as slavery, I might find some comfort in attempts to wrap it in some noble cause too. But I hope I wouldn’t get sucked into believing it 150 years later and calling disbelievers ignorant.
And please don’t send me links to states' rights claims or I’ll just follow them up with links to holocaust deniers (giving each the equal attention they deserve).