Wrong. The major cause of the Civil War was the secession of the states of the South. The reason for the secession was the election of Abraham Lincoln, and the perceived threat to the expansion of slavery into the west by his election. Without expansion into the west, eventually the southern states lose power in the Senate and House and they felt eventually slavery would be outlawed if their power was reduced in Congress. Lincoln campaigned on a platform of blocking the expansion of slavery into states where it didn't exist. He never threatened slavery in the existing slave owning states until later on well into the Civil War. He evolved on the issue. But originally he most definitely opposed the expansion of slavery. Slavery, or more precisely the expansion of slavery, was the major and root cause of the Civil War. Throw away your libertarian clap trap. Libertarians and neo Confederates sure do make strange bedfellows.