[mr.fundamental]

The American Civil War was fought by Americans on both sides. The northern states defeated the southern states. The United States were divided and the failure to reach a political compromise to avoid war was a loss for the United States as soon as the first shot was fired.

I think this is when the idea of state's rights died. After this point, the 10th amendment was thrown on its head. Then basically the 14th amendment came in and brought in more of a federalist idea. The reason I say that is because the 13th amendment had no teeth to it. The 14th made it to have teeth.

I see the point you were making, the old guard state's rights, the party of Jefferson, were every bit as patriotic in the idea of following the constitution to the point that they tried to over throw the government. Even becoming a new country (The Confederate States of America), at that point, I believe they gave up their rights as Americans. However, Lincoln would disagree with me on this as he viewed them as rebels that lived in the states.

It is interesting to me that the state's rights argument is still being played out today and the idea has flipped political parties but not demographically. The idea of states rights take hold in south. Which makes LBJ correct when he said that the Democrats would lose the south for the next 100 years once the civil rights bill was signed.