[PresidentDavis]

"States rights, in this instance, was just an excuse to defend the indefensible. "

No, the point is that the states did not delegate away the authority that the federal government was seeking to take.

It's not an issue of which policy you would prefer. The issue is whether or not the federal government had the Constitutional authority to come into a state and change the laws of that state. The Dixiecrats were right in saying that the federal government did not have such authority.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Well, of course, it is worthy of note that Dixiecrats "prefered" racist policies when given a chance to enact them in their own states.