Of course slavery is immoral and despicable, and of course preserving slavery motivated Southern states

to secede from the Union. Yet there also can be no doubt that Southern states believed the Constitution

conferred the right of secession. Abundant constitutional scholarship supports the reasonableness of

such a view at that time. But Von Drehle comes no closer than a dismissive mention of "states' rights" to

the question of the legality of secession and the illegality of a war to stop it. Surely Von Drehle cannot be

surprised that so many doubt the nobility of the motives of the Northern states and the legality and

morality of their armed and economic devastation of the South.