Every one of the issues you mentioned was an offshoot of slavery. Slavery was an embarrassment of those American ideals as expressed in the Declaration of Independence. Sure many compromises were tried with the slave issue, but everyone new in their hearts that one could not compromise on freedom. America could not long last as both free and slave. The Civil War removed the flaw in the Constitution when the South was defeated.

Author — Apprentice Killers: The War of Lincoln and Davis.