Old South monument backers embrace "Confederate Catechism"

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A decades-old booklet called the "Confederate Catechism" lays out core beliefs of Southern heritage groups including the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which sells the book and has defended rebel monuments in New Orleans and elsewhere.

"Both from the standpoint of the Constitution and sound statesmanship, it was not slavery, but the vindictive, intemperate anti-slavery movement that was at the bottom of all the troubles," states the 12-page text, written in question-and-answer form.

The "anything but slavery" narrative is popular among Confederate sympathizers who maintain the war was about something other than maintaining the ability of white Southerners to own black people.

The 16th president of the United States brought on four years of bloodshed by rejecting the legal right of the 11 states of the Confederacy to leave the Union and sending troops into the South, it claims.

Carl Jones, chief of heritage operations for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said the catechism is important but it's almost too simplistic in explaining causes of the war, which he said included constitutional questions, religion and multiple other factors.