The institution was on it’s way out? I don’t think so. Kansas was the battle-ground state as to slave vs. free. I know the war was about slavery but in any discussion I’ve ever had about the war with Southerners I’m told it wasn’t about slavery. You’ll notice I used three different titles in referring to it, another aspect of discussing the war. “Northern aggression’’? The South fired the first shots. “Southern independence? Maybe for some but certainly not for the slaves. I’m well aware many Southerners did not own slaves but blacks did? I’ve never been aware of that. As to answering questions? It’s evident to me the Civil War , it’s reasons and causes are still very much unanswered and in some ways the war itself still persists, in the political sense anyway.(btw, my ancestors fought for the Union).
Yes, I knew your ancestors fought for the North. Some of mine fought for the South, some for the North, and most of them just tried to get by.
I’m also going to hazard a guess that you were not raised in the South. If you were, you would know that southerners paid dearly for being on the wrong side of the war for many, many years afterward. We have only recently come into our own economically. That’s why it’s still an issue and a topic of discussion.
All that aside, the only really important question is the one of states’ rights vs. an all-powerful federal government.