MountainWalker:
"You just admitted that the reasons besides protecting the union were secondary, as if they mattered in the end when they didn’t." Slavery was not a secondary issue to secessionists who declared their separations to protect it.
Nor was slavery secondary to the Union troops who marched into battle singing Julia Ward Howe's song:
"In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me.
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free*,[14]
While God is marching on."
You insult history and Americans by denying the centrality of slavery in the US Civil War.
BroJoeK: "Of course it was about protecting the Union from Confederates' aggressive actions to destroy it. But protecting slavery (Confederates) and freedom for slaves (Unionists) were
never far from the top of the list of reasons for war."
My point (which was your point before you forgot) stands. The war was principally to hold the union together. Even if reason #2 were a over a cause less noble than abolition, the war would have still happened.