There's more truth in Mencken than in Lincoln, but it shouldn't be forgotten that the Southern landowners were elected only by white males above a certain income. Women could not vote. Blacks could not vote. Poor white males could not vote. Incidentally, this is also true of the North. So who was fighting for who and for what? Who in government could properly be said to be representing the interests of the majority, that is, the females, the slaves, and the poor whites? No one. They all pretended to democracy. The Civil War was more about taxation and tariffs and British agent provocateurs, than about slavery. The title of one of the better books on the subject sums it all up: "Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men"