To this day America is bitterly split on the Civil War. It is a shame and a sin. Lincoln was President. He did not act alone and the South's refusal to accept terms of no slavery in the new territories set the stage for the conflict. Booth did the south a great disfavor by assassinating Lincoln. Reconstruction would have been a lot less painful under Lincoln's watch. His plans were to return the southern states to normalcy as quickly and painlessly as possible. Much of the bitterness today is a result of that decision in my opinion. I'm fully aware I am most probably in the minority on this forum about that from what I have observed. Had the South succeeded in splitting the nation just how many nations would this country have today?
If the USA had broken apart into several different nations I do believe this would be a better place. It would have served to keep us out of foreign wars and therefore not incurred the debt we have incurred as the "leader of the free world". Just imagine the different world it would be if we had not gone to war with Spain, not created the Federal Reserve, and been able to sit out WW1 and WW2. WW2 wouldn't have even happened. We would have avoided Korea, Vietnam, and all the recent Middle East dustups.
I believe the south's biggest mistake was in not taking the issue of the legality of secession to the U.S. Supreme Court where Roger Taney would have weighed in on the side of secession being legal.
