I repeat. Lincoln was not an abolitionist. Abolitionists wanted an immediate end to slavery. Lincoln did not. He simply wanted to stop slavery from expanding. In time the slavery states would be outnumbered in Congress, and once that happened slavery was doomed. That was why the South, knowing this, seceded from the union upon the election of Lincoln. But despite Lincoln's sincere opposition to slavery, as president his primary concern was to avoid a civil war. However, I suspect he knew that was not possible. He was not going to allow slavery to expand and he was smart enough to know the South would not accept anything less. Where is the contradiction between this statement of fact and the equally factual statement that Slavery was the primary cause of the Civil War?
Bull Ch!t That war was happening. May have been postponed for a few years, but that war was being fought. Northern and southern states had their differences from the beginning. different religous beliefs (North = Puritans, South = Catholics & Baptists), different cultures (North = Industrial & urban, South = Agricultural & Rural) , different political views (North = Stronger Federal Government, South = stronger state governments) These are strong enough reasons for most wars ever fought on this planet without even mentioning the slavery issue. The two sides were going to go at it eventually. All the slavery issue did was speed up the process.
You are dead wrong. None of these differences were enough to shove the nation into warring against itself. First, most Southerners were Protestant. And even if they were Catholic, they certainly were not going to enter into a destructive war because of it. Same thing with the cultural differences. Nor was the conservatism of the South a sufficient cause of the war. These were mere side issues. If you read the letters, diaries, newspaper accounts and other documents coming out of the North and South in the years prior to the Civil War it becomes clear that the one issue than dominated politics and discussion was slavery. That was the only issue the South was willing to go to war over. Every major Civil War historian, including Bruce Catton, T. Harry Williams and Shelby Foote agree with this. Slavery was the hotbed issue confronting the nation.
None of these reasons would have brought on a war. C'mon, it was slavery that was the primary issue. All the other issues you state were there, but it would never have happened without slavery.
These reasons are enough to cause LOTS of other wars that have ever been fought on this planet but not the U.S.? The war was coming. The divide between the North and South had been growing since shortly after the Revolutionary War. All the Slave issue did was speed up the War. Think about all of the Major wars that have been fought in this world. Religous Differences, Political differences, and Cultural differences can be attributed to the reasons behind them. If not the Slave issue, it would have been another. 2 groups of people living that close together with that many differences WILL fight it out eventually. The War was going to happen with or without Slavery.
The economic disparity is what caused the war. The north used its population advantage to pass legislation that was of a protectionist nature. Northern industrial goods benefited from this greatly while Southron agricultural goods were hurt. Slavery was only an issue because the slave state free state ratio kept the senate neutral deflating the ability of the north to abuse the south economically. At the time of the war the abolition movement was confined to the fringe of the Republican party. The vast majority of Americans did not care about slavery.
