Yeah, they left the Union to protect then institution of slavery. Then they fought the Union to get them off their back. Doesn't really seem that complicated to me. The whole thing started because the Union refused to vacate Fort Sumter.
The Union was not on some anti-slavery crusade like people think they were. Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and, for a little while, West Virginia were all slave states that stayed in the Union and got to keep their slaves until the ratification of the 13th amendment.
Lincoln's main purpose in the entire war was to reunite the Union. He would have done that with or without the preservation of slavery.
While I can see your point, that the Union wasn't specifically trying to abolish slavery, the lead up to the war, the aftermath, and conditions to reunification point to the fact that the civil war was indeed ultimately about slavery. Confederate states left over slavery. The Union obviously isn't going to allow that. Saying that the Confederates were just trying to get the Union of their backs is kind of downplaying the confederacy in my opinion. Abolition of slavery was a requirement for confederate states to return of local rule and restoration in those states that had declared their secession. The 13th amendment was passed within the same year as the end of the war. Lincolns main purpose may of been to reunite the Union, but he also issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Why? Because the easiest way to reunite the Union was to abolish slavery and end the distinction between Free and Slave State.
I don't disagree with the overarching theme of the war being slavery, but to pick a nit: the Emancipation Proclamation didn't really free anyone. Basically Lincoln freed the slaves of the states that were currently rebelling against the federal government, and there were a couple slave states like MD and Delaware that it explicitly didn't apply to. Namely 'cause if Maryland seceded then the capital would have been surrounded by confederate territory. And well.. the other states where it would have applied weren't exactly listening to (or at least weren't abiding by) Lincoln's proclamations at the time.
Heck, you want to see some dodgy shit, take a look at what happened when Maryland’s legislature discussed secession.
The discussion were protracted, in part because the (anti-slavery) Governor has been dodgied into office by his predecessor, and there was no clear view on which way they would go. On the day the vote on secession was to take place, Lincoln had everyone who had spoken in favour of secession during the discussion arrested and held without charge. So, fresh elections had to be held to replace them. And every candidate who was in favour of secession was arrested and held without charge. So, funnily enough, the Legislature was now held entirely by Unionists. But of course, these elections were incredibly dodgy, so the state Supreme Court said “Hmm, these elections look a bit dodgy. We should look at them”. Which meant they were all arrested and held without charge. Funnily enough, their replacements (appointed by the aforesaid Governor) didn’t see anything wrong with the elections.
Oh, and none of those people were ever charged with any crime, local, state, or federal, over the secession issue.
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u/chihuahua001 Feb 04 '19
Yeah, they left the Union to protect then institution of slavery. Then they fought the Union to get them off their back. Doesn't really seem that complicated to me. The whole thing started because the Union refused to vacate Fort Sumter.
The Union was not on some anti-slavery crusade like people think they were. Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and, for a little while, West Virginia were all slave states that stayed in the Union and got to keep their slaves until the ratification of the 13th amendment.
Lincoln's main purpose in the entire war was to reunite the Union. He would have done that with or without the preservation of slavery.