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Yeah, what you’re saying is right — it was a “state’s rights” issue — fundamentally and primarily. Too many people today have “romanticized” the Civil War into something that it never was.

I’ve got mixed feelings about the *real issue* behind the Civil War, because you’re right, they did have a right to remove themselves from the Union. And today we’ve lost a lot of state’s rights issues because of that (and we should try to get them back again, as “sovereign states” of the United States).

The mixed feelings comes about, because I think everyone would want to preserve the Union — but — it came at a price — the price of war and the price of losing state’s rights. And so, the mixed feelings...

I'm with you. I was born and raised in the South. Even all through my school years in the 1950s and 1960s, it was all about slavery. War started because ALL southerners had slaves and north wanted to get rid of slavery. NO MENTION of the states rights issues. It was always about slavery. Even in college in the early 1970s, it was about slavery. All I know is my daddy and mama came from very, very humble back grounds, way out in the country on a farm, and I have visited my dad's old home place, and YES, they had to walk three miles to the main highway just too catch a bus to school. Probably not snowing, but certainly cold in the winters. I know that they never owned any slaves. My dad was a welder by profession and my mom a house wife and later after I was gone (I was the youngest), she went to work in a local grocery store just to have something too do during the days while dad was at work. Weren't no slaves around our house. So, that ALL southerners having slaves was pure yankee B.S. My dad and mom and their families worked those farm fields. My dad said that during the depression, they did not know there was one, because they were poor country folks anyway. But, they had food because they grew it, fished and hunted it, and raised chickens, cows, horses, etc. So, they had the ability to take care of themselves.