Amos- sorry, NOT. This is the old "states rights" dodge, disproven many times over.

Sorry, Mike.

You need to become familiar with the history of the 50 years(or better the 200 years) PRECEEDING the election of 1860. The events of that year did not take place in a vacuum. Also brush up on the realities of Reconstuction- I see you've swallowed the "Carpetbagger" myth whole.

1. ....the slaveholding states did in fact fear that the newly elected Abraham Lincoln was a closet abolitionist who would destroy slavery...

I think you thought this a refutation of my argument, when in fact it CONFIRMS my argument.

2.... Declarations of the Causes of the Seceding States for S. Carolina, Texas, Georgia and Mississippi, which can be read here).

Do yourself a favor & go to the primnary documentation instead of someone's interpretation/opinion- e.g. the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession itself, available on the same website you reference & elsewhere. Then read the collected correspondance of Alexander Stephens and Jefferson Davis.

3. Not a very good analogy. The North invaded the South. ... the choice of the military option by Lincoln...[destroyed] Lincoln's best chance of saving the Union without war."
Sigh. "Fraid Not. "The North" - i.e. Lincoln and the duly elected Federal government - responded to an armed attack upon the United States at Fort Sumter. Prior to that there WAS no "military threat" to the South. Only after this overt act by the South did the Federal Government call for troops. Lincoln did not initiate armed conflict. In fact, he repeatedly tried to avoid it.

4. Yes, there were some blacks who fought for the Confederacy....

Yes, and there were some Jews who collaborated with the Nazis. What's your point?