The main issue of the Civil War was states rights, the degree to which the federal government could boss the states around. The right to make slavery laws was one of the issues, but there were others, including the tarrif. The main cause was sectionalism: that is that parts of the country considerd themselves more important than the nation as a whole. Had slavery been the only issue, the War probably wouln't have been fought till much later in our history. After the war had allready broke out, Lincoln shifted the main issue to slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation, which had absolutely no physical effect on the Southern slaves until after the war. Again, I don't belive slavery is right. But I refuse to bow to the politically correct PoV just becasue it's expected.

And the Rebel flag has nothing to do with slavery. When I see a Rebel flag, hate for black people or a desire to enslave them is not what comes to mind, and if that's what people think it means, then they don't understand the average southerner.