<P> (The) servile instincts (of slaves) rendered them contented with their lot, and their patient toil blessed the land of their abode with unmeasured riches . Their strong local and personal attachment secured faithful service...never was there happier dependence of labor and capital on each other . The tempter came, like the serpent of Eden, and decoyed them with the magic word of' freedom'...He put arms in their hands, and trained their humble but emotional natures to deeds of violence and bloodshed, and sent them out to devastate their benefactors . </P> <P> Some of the main tenets of the Lost Cause movement were that: </P> <Ul> <Li> Confederate generals such as Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston, and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson represented the virtues of Southern nobility and fought bravely and fairly . On the other hand, most Northern generals were characterized as possessing low moral standards, because they subjected the Southern civilian population to indignities like Sherman's March to the Sea and Philip Sheridan's burning of the Shenandoah Valley in the Valley Campaigns of 1864 . While Union General Ulysses S. Grant is often portrayed as an alcoholic . </Li> <Li> Losses on the battlefield were inevitable due to Northern superiority in resources and manpower . </Li> <Li> Battlefield losses were also sometimes the result of betrayal and incompetence on the part of certain subordinates of General Lee, such as General James Longstreet, who was reviled for doubting Lee at Gettysburg (the Lost Cause focused mainly on Lee and the Eastern Theater of operations, and often cited Gettysburg as the main turning point of the war). </Li> <Li> Defense of states' rights, rather than preservation of chattel slavery, was the primary cause that led eleven Southern states to secede from the Union, thus precipitating the war . </Li> <Li> Secession was a justifiable constitutional response to Northern cultural and economic aggressions against the Southern institution of slavery . </Li> <Li> Slavery was a benign institution, and the slaves were loyal and faithful to their benevolent masters, in contrast to the reality of its racism, brutality and dehumanization . </Li> <Li> Algood identifies a Southern aristocratic ideal, typically called "the Southern Cavalier ideal" in the Lost Cause . It especially appeared in studies of Confederate partisans who fought behind Union lines, such as Nathan Bedford Forrest, Turner Ashby, John Singleton Mosby, and John Hunt Morgan . Writers stressed how they embodied courage in the face of heavy odds, as well as horsemanship, manhood and martial spirit . </Li> </Ul> <Li> Confederate generals such as Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston, and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson represented the virtues of Southern nobility and fought bravely and fairly . On the other hand, most Northern generals were characterized as possessing low moral standards, because they subjected the Southern civilian population to indignities like Sherman's March to the Sea and Philip Sheridan's burning of the Shenandoah Valley in the Valley Campaigns of 1864 . While Union General Ulysses S. Grant is often portrayed as an alcoholic . </Li>

According to revisionist historians what was the primary cause of the civil war