Grenartia wrote:Paixao wrote:
What?
This is wrong. If it's common knowledge it's incorrect Common Knowledge.
Slavery (and specifically the expansion of slavery into not-yet-states out to the West) was definitely a huge factor in the increase of tensions surrounding the American Civil War, but the main issue in the Civil war was secession. The North couldn't afford to allow the South to secede despite the South believing it had the right to. Not combating the South would be accepting they had seceded and that it was a lawful and legal action, encouraging the entirety of the US to disintegrate.
Slavery was a side issue. Lincoln himself was a gradual emancipist, not an abolitionist. As far as he was concerned, slavery was set to die out over time. To quote him:
"If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union."
Yes, he was opposed to slavery, yes he would've like to have seen it disappear from earth. However, he was a lawyer and a unionist first, and couldn't rightly find a way to make slavery illegal in the South (before they had seceded). Once they had seceded, his main interest was to reunify the United States. Slavery itself was relevant only as part of the compromise in the issue. It was not why the American Civil war was fought.
[/history rant for the day]
Arguably, slavery WAS the main issue, as it was the main issue behind secession.
The Expansion of slavery was one of many arguments behind the South's desire to secede.
Everything from taxes, to militant abolitionists, to foreign policy, to arrogant overestimation of the strength of the Southern cotton economy, to how many 'ebul Republicans' were in the power was a factor. Many of these differences were tied to slavery in one way or another, or the way slavery (or a lack of it) affected the difference between the North and South's economies, but it wasn't slavery itself that was the issue.
I stand by my statement that it's wrong to say the American Civil War was about slavery. It may have been a result of slavery, but the issue at hand was definitely secession.
