"Union mean so many millions a year lost to the South; secession means the loss of the same millions to the North." He also noted that "Slavery has in reality nothing on earth to do with it."
That is what I have begun to realize. So why all these claims that the war was fought to end slavery?
Because that sounds so much better than saying the war was fought to maintain the money streams into the Northern States.
If the leadership had told the truth, they would not have been able to launch a war. As much as people would have hated the massive loss of jobs and economic activity, the fair minded Christians, of which the nation was mostly composed back in those days, would not have consented to a war on their brothers for money.
Only by pushing the war as a moral crusade could they hope to Unite the North in an effort to slap the chains on their brothers in the South.
The "Free the Slaves" stuff appears to have been Goebbels like Propaganda.
Again, the truth would have not been able to motivate a vast military invasion. The Union soldiers that believed they were fighting for a greater cause were duped. The meatgrinder was created and operated to serve profit, not freedom.