Except not.
And, leaving the Union so you could continue to own other people and treat them as property was at best morally reprehensible, and at least a good reason to get your asses handed to you.
The problem with that premise is a unamamus resolution passed by the U.S. Congress in 1861 stating that the sole purpose of the war was for the preservation of the union and no other reason. That combined with the proposed constitutional amendment by Lincoln himself that would have guaranteed the continuation and protection of slavery in the U.S. where it was then allowed forever if the seceeding states would return. Additionally, if this was some great moral crusade against slavery, why did Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, two years into the war, not apply to the slave owning states of Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, the newly (and illegally) formed state of West Virginia, and to several southern parishes of Louisiana? In the case of Louisiana, could it possibly have had anything to do with the then occupying federal army running the sugar cane and cotton plantations located there with slave labor? Contrary to what you may want to think, I am not defending slavery, but I do think it best to tell the whole truth. How about doing a bit of research into how the great Yankee righteous crusaders robbed, murdered, raped, and destroyed the homes of southern civilians, both black and white, supporters of the union and seccessionists alike. How many free blacks were murdered in the draft riots in New York City, including an orphanage for black children that were burned alive? Why was it illegal for a free black to settle in Lincoln's own home state of Illinois, to say nothing of having voting rights? The simple facts are that the great majority of northerners did not give a rats ass about blacks. The war was fought over political power and taxation. Political power to levy huge taxes by a majority over a minority section of the nation (the southern states). Do a bit of research concerning taxes levied by a northern political majority exclusively on southern produced export products while none on northern produced products. Just before the most of the southern states attempted to leave, they were producing about 70% of the total revenues to the federal government and virtually none of the tax revenues were being spent on any public projects in the south. At the time this nation had only some 84 years before declared its independence and fought a terrible struggle for it for far less good reasons than the south had. The war was a tradgety of epic proportions, but certainly not a struggle of the all righteous aginst the evil heathens. Former Confederate President Jefferson Davis in his latter years is quoted as lamenting that the issues for which the south struggled have not been settled and the issues will once again in the future need to be addressed. Obviously, he was not referring to slavery.
