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Why? If it was about slavery the North could have bought every slave and freed them for a lot less money and blood shed. Even though the confederate constitution enshrined slavery, slavery was becoming obsolete and would have been phased out as mechanization would have made slaves too expensive to keep.

The issue of the civil war was not slavery, but whether states had a right to independence, as the Declaration of Independence asserted they did.

The Southern states would have been squeezed economically to end slavery anyway with trade agreements between Europe and the northern states.

One of the things that has convinced me the civil war was wrong was the economics of that period. The South was producing 72% of the total tax revenue for the US Federal government. They were doing quite well financially, and it was literally impossible for the Northern states to do anything about it other than invade them and destroy their industry. (Which is what they actually did.)

BUT. We are to blindly celebrate another mortal man just because we are told to. Lincoln. FDR, Barry Soetero, MLK, Ghandi. Nelson Mendela. Just worship them. Don’t ask questions because muh racism.

Yeah, I don't like mortal worship either.

.. slavery was becoming obsolete and would have been phased out as mechanization would have made slaves too expensive to keep.

Often repeated but a provably false statement. I have reminded many that the first mechanical cotton picker was not invented until the 1940s, and it was not really a practical machine until the 1960s. Other crops such produce are still hand picked. And I remind you that the first African slaves were brought to the new world for mining. We have no shortage of mining ventures today.

Would slavery have lasted up until our day. I doubt it. I think there would have been a slave rebellion in the South before too much longer. It would not have been pretty and probably taken many more lives than the Civil War. But don’t for a minute think that mechanization would have brought a quick end to slavery. It would not have. There was still a demand for it.