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I see where you are coming from..And you are right, but...It was the economics being forced on the south by the northern states that made the use of slavery enticing...Look at the manufacturing and sale of goods to Europe by the industrialized north compared to what the north paid the south for the materials...

States rights and economics played the major role...Slavery was, of course, a part of the economics and rights...

"Slavery," as then defined, was a precipitant of something less defined, but clearly more relevant. That was a breakdown in the mutual respect between the multi-generational communities that had rallied together in the Revolution, and joined together in a Federation of States, where part of the arrangement was that matters of "health, safety & morals," remained with those States and the communities within those States.

The sanctimonious passing of judgment on one another, increasingly evident after 1820, and accelerating into the middle of the 19th Century, was the actual cause. The idea of tearing down the honored heroes of the Old South, today, reflects a renewal of the malady--the dearth of mutual respect;--which, ultimately, is a repudiation of the very premises of that Federation.

Note how a great Twentieth Century patriot, General Douglas MacArthur appropriately honored both "Blue & Gray":

Duty, Honor, Country

Tolerating & respecting historic differences was the key to healing the terrible wounds of a terrible war. (Note MacArthur's father had been a General in that War, fighting for the Union side.

I don’t understand how you can say that slavery was not the main issue of the war, and then immediately thereafter say that it was the economics of slavery and the political control of slavery that was central to the conflict, without spraining your brain.

You aren't seeing the distinction between slavery and the money. Yes, the slaves produced the money, but the war wasn't about whether there was going to continue being slavery. For the first two years of the war, Lincoln had every intention of keeping slavery exactly as it was.

The War was about whether the money produced by the South (The South produced 3/4ths of *ALL TRADE REVENUE* for the nation.) would be controlled by the people of the South, or by Washington D.C.

The South produced 200 million dollars per year in trade exports in 1860, and 40% of that money was captured by middlemen in New York, and the vast bulk of the Taxes paid to operate Washington D.C. came from that same source of money.

The South was paying most of the taxes to run the government, while the North, which was four times larger in population, was only paying 25% of the taxes to operate the Federal government.

You might want to read this. It goes into the South's economic gripes about how Washington taxed them excessively and spent the money in the North for the benefit of the North at the expense of the South.

http://www.civilwarcauses.org/rhett.htm