[BroJoeK]

DiogenesLamp to x: "Invading other peoples lands to abolish slavery was "God's Work", or at least so we had been led to believe.
And now when I look at the facts of the relevant history, I discover most people in the North didn't really care about the slaves, they cared about wage and labor issues..."

That word, "slavery" is the answer to some, but not all, of the following questions:

1. What did Deep South Fire Eaters want to protect in declaring secession from the United States?
2. Why did Confederates provoke, start & declare war on the United States?
3. Why did Confederates refuse to negotiate peace short of "unconditional surrender"?
4. Why did Confederates provoke, start & declare war on the United States, while sending aid to pro-Confederates in Union states?
5. Why did the Union finally respond to Confederate provocations and acts of war?
6. Why did the Union continue to fight for "unconditional surrender" of the Confederacy?

"Protecting slavery" describes Confederate leaders' motivation, while "defending the Union" was more central to Northerners.
But yes, abolishing slavery, as Julia Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic proclaims, did become a "higher cause" helping to justify the Union's great expenses in blood & treasure for the Civil War.

Bottom line: Abolishing slavery was much more important to average Union soldiers than was, say, the Holocaust to WWII GIs, but abolition was not their first and foremost concern.

Defeating Confederates and preserving the Union was.

[HangUpNow]

Total insanity. Wow.

[DiogenesLamp]

What did Deep South Fire Eaters want to protect in declaring secession from the United States?

Their right to be independent from what they regarded as a biased and despotic government in Washington D.C. (Same as today.)

Why did Confederates provoke, start & declare war on the United States?

When did you stop beating your wife?

When someone asks you to leave their home, they are entirely within their rights to do so. If you insist on staying when it has been made very clear to you that you are not welcome, you don't get to call them the aggressor when they toss you out of their home.

When you come back to their home with a big crowd of rowdies to whip their @$$ for tossing you out, you are still the aggressor.