I believe that the point of no return in the secession of the Southern states occurred when slavery first started to be outlawed in all the states created after the Missouri Compromise. This led the Southern people into distress, one knowing that the North has stated that all slaves that escape to the North are free, and secondly that slaves will one day be outlawed in all states.

Many Southern people and almost all Southern planters where outraged at the Missouri Compromise. Their main debate was to keep and equilibrium of slave and free states. In their view, not keeping this equilibrium does not comply with the Constitution where states create their own government, and make their own laws. The North however had different plans. They too wanted to follow the Constitution. Their debate was that all men shall be created equal, and the South was not upholding...