Look at all the rivers/transportation that empties into the single port of New Orleans from the Mississippi River basin. The South was for a 10% tariff to maintain the river and the North was for a 40% tariff on all trade. Want to understand the main cause of the War Between the States? Here you have it. The South was paying more than 75% of the taxes to fund the feds and the North would have lost both its protective tariffs for its industry and its future revenue sources for its interior states and territories from the Canadian border all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. All wars are fought over economics and usually with some other veneer serving as covering to sell to the masses for public consumption and blurring. The real reasons for war source to the taking or defending of people’s stuff.
The States seceded from the British soon to form the union of the Articles of Confederation. The States seceded from the Articles of Confederation to join the union of the Constitution of 1787. The south seceded from the union of the Constitution of 1787 to form the union of the Confederate Constitution of 1861. The Founders always believed in secession, reserved the right in their writings, and taught their sons and grandsons the same. “Secession”, according to a copy of Webster’s dictionary from 1836 in use at the time, merely means “the act of withdrawal”. It does not have to mean war. The South seceded in peace and offered to pay all debts and settle all claims in good faith. Lincoln would not let his tax base paying for more than 75% of his government go. He also did not want a free trade zone on his border and the five major interior river systems with tributaries that run from Canada to New Orleans go to serve the interior states so they could avoid his 40% taxes (tariffs) that had to be paid if they were forced to unload in NY, Boston, and Providence. If you lived in Ohio for example, would you pay a 10% tax to use the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers for your products or would you pay a 40% tax to unload in NY and pay even more to ship it overland to you? The answer is clear. If the South had been allowed to go in peace, “grass would have grown in the streets” on NY just as their papers said. Secession is not war and wars are fought over economics before, then, and now.