Sir: There never was a Civil War in this country.....There was a war for Southern Independence !! When the South was convinced that the North had devieated so far from the Constitution that they could no longer be a part of the Union, they withdrew from the "Union" peacefully, legally, constutionally, and upon moral grounds! The "civil war" occurred in the North when Lincoln tried to draft men to fight in the south....for example, in New York when young men were to be drafted they protested in such a violent manner that Federal troops was sent to quash the rebellion (this is in itself a violation of the constitution), 1200 white men were killed and 83 blacks hanged. When Lincoln sent 75,000 troops to invade the South, this was unconstitutional ! The reason North Carolina seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy was not slavery but, as Governor Ellis so eloquently stated, a gross usurpation of power in violation of the Constitution. STUDY THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, THE U. S. CONSTITUTION, THE BILL OF RIGHTS, TREATY OF PARIS OF 1783, AND THE RATIFICATION CONVENTIONS OF THE FOLLOWING STATES; VIRGINIA, NEW YORK, RHODE ISLAND, ETC. Regards from an unreconstructed Southerner by the Grace of God !!! Everett Hicks....direct descendant of Thomas Nelson (signed D. of I. ) and Edmund Pendleton (attorney at law) who wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence at the request of Thomas Jefferson !