General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: A Major New Study Shows That Political Polarization Is Mainly A Right-Wing Phenomenon [View all]VOX
(22,976 posts)The South, an agrarian society, was extremely (almost completely) dependent upon slave labor. Although the South was predominately Democratic then, the planter class was an aristocracy, conservative by today's yardstick. They were states' rights and small central-government believers, and saw federal tariffs as tyranny. When Lincoln was elected, they felt that their slave economy would be abruptly taken away, and so 11 states withdrew from the union. Driven, as it were, no matter how inhuman their case was.
The North had manufacturing centers and a greater diversity of population. The Republicans were the liberal party then, believers in strong central government, anti-slavery, preserve the union, etc.
The ideological divide was so broad and so set in stone that compromise failed. Open warfare and 4 years of unholy bloodshed.