The text authors assert that in the coming of the Civil War, “the fund

The text authors assert that in the coming of the Civil War, “the fundamental issue was slavery.” Do you agree? Some argue that states’ rights was the key issue of the Civil War. Do you think they miss the point?

What will be an ideal response?

ANSWER
The expansion of slavery had generated the pre-Civil War crises of the 1850s, and it was Lincoln’s and the Republican’s absolute opposition to slavery’s expansion that caused the Crittenden Compromise to fail. For many, opposition to slavery’s expansion was rooted in opposition to slavery itself. The South resorted to states’ rights not as an end in itself, but as a means to protect slavery.