“You were thinking that 8 states or so were suddenly going to switch sides on the “abolish slavery” issue? How likely was that?”
No, I wasn’t. The first call for abolition in the colonies that would become the United States happened in 1688. Nearly two hundred years before the election of Abraham Lincoln. The fire eaters and their stooges were thinking long term. They were trying to protect the institution of slavery because it was the cornerstone of a way of life they wanted to hand down to future generations.
“Slavery, the very source of our existence, the greatest blessing both for Master & Slave that could have been bestowed upon us.”
-Stephan Dodson Ramseur, future Confederate general, writing from West Point in the wake of the 1856 election
“There is not a respectable system of civilization known to history whose foundations were not laid in the institution of domestic slavery.”
-Senator Robert M. T. Hunter of Virginia
“Slavery is said to be an evil… But is no evil. On the contrary, I believe it to be the greatest of all the great blessings which a kind Providence has bestowed upon our glorious region…”
-Congressman James Henry Hammond, February 1, 1836
As such it is irrelevant to what happened after 1776. And I don't care about your cherry picked quotes. Propagandists have had 150 years to drag those out of the much and present them as "evidence."
Money talks. Bullsh*t walks. The war was about money and the continuous control of it by the Northern elite who still control Washington DC today with lies and astroturf movements like BLM and Antifa.
There is a reason why most of the "News" services are located in New York. Quicker to get their directions from people who make money off of Washington DC spending policy and influence.