Reasons for the war? How quickly we forget

 This is not the first time a new president has needed a history lesson on the Civil War.
 It also happened in May 1865, when the war was as fresh as cavalry dust and the Yankees were still chasing the fugitive Confederate president Jefferson Davis across Georgia.
 Here's a link to our original story in The Stoneman Gazette, where Union Gen. William Palmer wrote a passionate and eloquent letter intended for President Andrew Johnson. Palmer was alarmed to hear that the administration might delay the full emancipation of slaves, now that Lincoln was dead. Gen. Palmer wanted the new president to know what he was hearing from Southerners and why emancipation was non-negotiable.
 Our original story also includes links to the "Declaration of Causes," where several seceding states explained why they left the Union.
 If we're honest, we all have questions about the real reasons for secession and the Civil War (which are not necessarily the same), not to mention the complicated motives of individual generals and soldiers on both sides.
 However, the declarations of those who voted to secede are undeniable. For example, read what the delegates from Mississippi wrote:

 The Confederate Constitution of March 11, 1861, explicitly protected slave ownership (though it did prohibit the international slave trade.)
 Article IV, Section 3, says: "In all such territory the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected be Congress and by the Territorial government; and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories shall have the right to take to such Territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of the States or Territories of the Confederate States."