Many, many historians have studied the US Civil War and even they can't agree to the main cause. State's rights, slavery, preserving the Union are high on the list and are inter-related.
@MS Hitman, I agree with you completely that the buildup to war took much longer than a month (BTW, I didn't say that it did take a month, I said South Carolina seceeded one month after Lincoln was elected). As
@Red Leg mentioned, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was a triggering event. You can go back to 1952 to the publishing of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" or further back to 1820 to the Missouri Compromise. It didn't help things that two of our worst presidents, Pierce and Buchanan were in office during the lead up to war. Better and bolder leadership could have helped to overt war.
One thing I completely disagree with you on is Lincoln's view on slavery. Read Lincoln's "House Divided Speech" of 1858. (
http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/house.htm) Read the Lincoln-Douglas debates. First and foremost, Lincoln wanted to preserve the Union and avoid war. Lincoln was an astute politcian and knew how and when to pick his battles. Lincoln, while not supporting the Corwin Amendment (a failed piece of legislation), he did not oppose it either.
When Lincoln won the election in Nov. 1860, he did take office until Mar 1861. The senior military officer of the day, General Winfield Scott, was concerned that the Democrats would attempt to assassinate Lincoln and stationed a heavy military presence in Washington, DC.
In his 1861 inaugural address (
http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/1inaug.htm), Lincoln very matter of factually told Southerns that they could keep their slaves (I am summarizing this quite a bit) and yet the south still seceded and attacked or confiscated Federal forts and munitions.
In a famous 1862 letter to Horace Greeley, Lincoln explained the reasons for his action and his long-held feelings on slavery and equality.
“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.
“I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.”
As far as your comments on Grant, he had been discharged from the army and was a civilian when the war broke out. He viewed the attacks on Federal forts as an insurrection and out of patriotism to the Union, fought to get a commission to return to duty in the Union Army. The rest is.............history.
