riddle - separate with a riddle, as grain from chaff screen sift, sieve, strain - separate by passing through a sieve or other straining device to separate out coarser elements; sift the flour
Causes of the Civil War: Slavery and Control of the Government. Throughout the first half of the 19th century, Southern politicians sought to defend slavery by retaining control of the federal government.
Northerners did not need slaves for their economy and fought a war to free them. Everything else, many textbooks claim, was tied to that economic difference and was anchored by cotton. The agricultural economy was certainly one cause of the Civil War, but not the only one. Wars are never simple and neither are their causes. Many other factors that helped bring about the war are central to understanding America's past.