From Anna Von Reitz
The reason for the so-called "Civil War" wasn't slavery and wasn't secession, nor was it, as you recently suggested, "a failure to compromise".
It happened because the British government abused its delegated authority to set our foreign trade policies.
Britain protected its own markets and those of other European nations by levying very heavy tariffs on American goods and entering into trade agreements (purportedly in our behalf, of course) that were disastrous for the Northern manufacturing states. As a direct result, American goods-- even in America-- were 30% to 40% more expensive than European goods.
The Southern states naturally wanted to buy the (artificially) cheaper European goods instead of the more expensive products of the Northern states.