Doyle,

From my POV you are telling us reasons of secession, is that correct/? it is not that I disagree with you, I just have a different idea of the cause of the war.

As far as I can tell secession WAS NOT illegal then or now, so the idea of save the Union was not based in Constitutional law. The only purpose in saving the Union was the collection of revenue. I will expand more on this in another thread.

Since I know only a little about Lincoln and the Constitution, could I ask you to go more into this statement, perhaps suggest some reading? "It was Mr. Lincoln and his Galena, Illinois band of thugs (Elihu Washburne, Winfield Scott, David Hunter, Jesse Grant) that took advantage of that political atmosphere to change the Constitution. The Constitution of 1787 died April 1865."