I didn't mean to imply non material or without reason, but the reaction to Lincolns election was way out of proportion to the potential limits that were to be put on slavery. The idea that without infinite growth slavery would be abolished is very much a unchallenged assumption of the, very deranged, slave holders themselves. The infinitely more likely possible outcome is slavery.being in someway limited to one of the previous demarcation lines, and then it literally never being abolished. The north had to be dragged kicking and screaming to abolition, and then the quick abandonment of reconstruction shows even that acceptance wacw grudging.