Comments by "possumverde" (@possumverde) on "Knowledgia" channel.

  1. What caused the war and what caused the states to secede are two different things. The only reason there was a war was because Lincoln refused to let the states leave the union even though the constitution did not (and still doesn't) address the matter (making it a 10th amendment issue) and definitely didn't give him the authority to force them to remain at gunpoint (even the founding fathers who were staunch federalists would have despised him had they still been around.) The primary reason he wouldn't/couldn't let them leave was because, due to economic shenanigans by powerful Northern businessmen and politicians, the southern states were ultimately paying ~85% of all tariffs when ~90% of the federal government's revenue at the time came from tariffs (no income tax etc.) Also, over 80% of federal assistance going out to the states pre secession went to northern states. In other words, the states that left took somewhere around 75% of the federal revenue with them when they left and the Northern states were going to have to actually pay their own way for a change.
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