re: #37 Belafon

The states’ rights argument is bs anyway. South Carolina was whining because New York wouldn’t honor the fugitive slave act and return escaped slaves.

Indeed. As applied (i.e. for slavery and for Jim Crow), ‘states rights’ arguments have always been total bullshit.

The fact that slavery in the territories and in new states was the most critical issue is the decisive evidence. The pro-slavery forces had dominated the Federal government since the founding, and the prospect of losing that domination was enough to make them rebel.