>>The war was over if the southern states could secede the union (which they wanted to do in order to keep their slaves). Since they lost, they could not secede the union - thus all those in the south remained US citizens and had to give up their slaves.
What does this banal truism have to do with what is actually being discussed here? Which piece of the argument have you failed to grasp this time?
Hate to respond like this, but it's habitual for you to do it to others and you've completely missed the point here.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
