Kikz,

How many deaths can a country die? You must have counted the ways.

You've been sold the South's own wound-licking post-war propaganda. Slavery was indeed the South's premiere cause for secession - so said their own pre- and early-war propaganda. Such a pity they couldn't find a worthy cause.

I mentioned nothing about reparations for slave owners; those monsters deserved precisely what they ultimately got - zilch. I said "eminent domain," whereby instead of secession they would demand Federal cash for the manumission of their slaves. It would have been a far more lucrative course. But, of course, that notion eluded them then, as it eludes you now.

Lincoln did indeed care about slavery but in 1861 was willing to forego abolition if the South voluntarily quit secession, which only goes to show the unworth of appeasing hotheads. In 1862 he owned up to reality.

Right or wrong - you take your pick, I'll take mine - secession was also politically and strategically imbecilic for leaving the U.S. Government entirely in the hands of the North. The Morril tariff was in March 1861, after seven states had seceded and thus depriving the Southern faction of the U.S. Senate 14 votes (those hotheads, again - just no talking to them.)

Btw, how did such "oppressive" tariffs pass a 50%-Southern U.S. Senate?