Easy escape from potential threats
The main reason why the border states did not secede in 1860-1862 was because they were concerned with the large amount of military coercion that was taking place in the South, and they felt that the South was ultimately unjustified in removing itself from the Union.
Crop failures, Insurance and banking failure, drops in cotton prices, rapid speculation in land, sudden plunges in the stock market and currency and credit crises etc caused the economic panics in 1800s. The United States of America during this period was very young nation and thus these panics devastated her economy.
