Slavery was the primary reason the South seceded

Sorry for the ambiguity, I am not that experienced in debates. Peculiar institution is another way to say slavery. It was and is, just another way to say slavery. Peculiar institution = slavery. I thought another civil war buff would accept my debate, and would know that peculiar institution is just another name for slavery. I don't see the need to write the debate topic as a question since I firmly believe that the primary reason for the secession for the southern states was slavery. You will just argue that the primary reason was not slavery. here's the definition of primary: first or highest in rank or importance (from dictionary.com) I don't think that the "primary reason has a list longer than one to two paragraphs of round by round debates". We are simply debating the most important reason the South seceded, which by definition will not be a list, just the most important reason. Many civil war historians such as Gary Gallagher, James M. McPherson, Drew Gilpin Faust, Eric Foner, Walter Edgar, Edna Medford and many others agree that slavery was the primary cause of the secession of the southern states. So, I must disagree with your assessment that, "Academically giving the primary reason of the south's secession is like asking How do you jump rope? And someone says JUMP." In fact, academically, the primary reason has been pretty much settled as slavery. Looking at what southern leaders before and during the secession crisis gives us ample evidence of this. Alexander Stephens, the VP of the Confederacy stated in his famous "Cornerstone speech" that: "The new Constitution has put at rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institutions"""African slavery as it exists among us"""the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson, in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the "rock upon which the old Union would split." He was right. What was conjecture with him, is now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that rock stood and stands, may be doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old Constitution were, that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with; but the general opinion of the men of that day was, that, somehow or other, in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away... Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the idea of a Government built upon it"""when the "storm came and the wind blew, it fell. Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition." March 1861 (note the use of "peculiar institution")(http://www.fordham.edu...) In January 1861, soon-to-be Confederate President Jefferson Davis said that his state had seceded because "She has heard proclaimed the theory that all men are created free and equal, and this made the basis of an attack upon her social institutions [slavery]; and the sacred Declaration of Independence has been invoked to maintain the position of the equality of the races." Davis was referring to well-known speeches by Lincoln and other Republicans citing the Declaration in criticism of slavery. (http://www.volokh.com...) These two documents speak for themselves as to what the two future leaders of the Confederacy felt the reason for secession was. The last ditch efforts at compromise, all of which deal with slavery, also point to slavery as the primary cause of southern secession. One last ditch effort was the Crittenden Compromise, which stated: The Crittenden proposal consisted of the following six amendments to the Constitution: 1. Slavery would be prohibited in all territory of the United States "now held, or hereafter acquired," north of latitude 36 degrees 30 minutes. In territory south of this line, slavery was "hereby recognized" and could not be interfered with by Congress. Further, property in slaves was to be "protected by all the departments of the territorial government during its continuance." States would be admitted to the Union from any territory with or without slavery as their constitutions provided. 2. Congress was forbidden to abolish slavery in places under its jurisdiction within a slave state, such as a military post. 3. Congress could not abolish slavery in the District of Columbia so long as it existed in the adjoining states of Virginia and Maryland, and without the consent of the District's inhabitants. Compensation would be given to owners who refused consent to abolition. 4. Congress could not prohibit or interfere with the interstate slave trade. 5. Congress would provide full compensation to owners of rescued fugitive slaves. Congress was empowered to sue the county in which obstruction to the fugitive slave laws took place to recover payment; the county, in turn, could sue "the wrong doers or rescuers" who prevented the return of the fugitive. 6. No future amendment of the Constitution could change these amendments, or authorize or empower Congress to interfere with slavery within any slave state. (http://www.tulane.edu...) Another proposed compromise was the Corwin amendment which shield "domestic institutions" of the states (which in 1861 included slavery) from the constitutional amendment process and from abolition or interference by Congress. (http://philmagness.com...) These two last ditch compromise efforts deal only with slavery. No other issue is addressed, because no other issue was as important in prompting the Southern secession than slavery. Lincoln rejected the Crittenden compromise since it would extend slavery into the territories, and the South rejected the Corwin Amendment, since it did not guarantee slavery in the Western territories. I await your response to my arguments and hope I have cleared up all ambiguities.