re: Civil War... States Rights or Slavery

Looking at the commissioners’ letters for secession - almost all of them list slavery as their primary cause. Ultimately, that boils down to the state’s rights - but the primary state’s right in question, at least in the minds of those who were leading the cause, was slavery.

There is an excellent book by Charles Dew called Apostles of Disunion that breaks it down masterfully. Dew was originally in the “states rights” camp, but through his research he came to terms with a much broader truth.