As for the question posed by the OP: The answer is YES.

I have been to many (American) Civil War sites. I have found them to be a great resource of our common history, full of honest information which provokes great solemnity and emotion in the American heart.

I was taught up North by Mr. Wilkins that the war was fought over slavery. I have maintained that even when challenged with the southern argument that it was over States' Rights. Abraham Lincoln put paid to that argument when he answered simply and effectively that people can't ask for rights that they deny to others: their slaves.

There has NEVER been denial in the United States that from its founding there was an internal contradiction: That the rights the Founding Fathers demanded and debated were denied to millions of other inhabitants. Thomas Jefferson eloquently brought up the subject of the 'peculiar institution' and said among many other things: "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just."

The wonder of our founding is that this disparate group of people were able to put together a country that lived to fulfill its own betterment to this very day.

It was never a sure thing and it is not a sure thing today.