Letting the left meme is like giving a toddler a gun...
(media.communities.win)
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Boiling the civil war down to a single issue will always be a bit spurious, but the tariff debate(Tariff of Abominations, Black Tariff, Walker Tariff, etc) was the most signifcant clevage point as it had almost pushed South Carolina over the edge in 1833.
Hardly really. The South was in control of the federal government for nearly all the time before the 1860s. And let us assume that the real issue, or the most important issue as you say, was tariffs. It is really strange that it was barely or not brought up in the extended negotiations about trying to mend the rift. It was always about concessions regarding slavery, and particularly slavery in the territories.
Slavery in the new territory is less about slavery itself and more about balance of power. Like all conflicts, it's ultimately a case of competing elites vying for control, and the side that only wanted to protect their own interests lost to the side that wanted to expand their control over the other, as is the most common resolution to such conflicts.