[Smokin' Joe]

For one thing, the Union did not immediately declare itself on a crusade for abolition at the war’s outset.

Abolition was an economic sanction. Take the tractors from the farms. Note that the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) not only came years later, but only addressed the issue in the South, which had already seceded.

Hardly the way to treat any alleged primary reason for war.

[rockrr]

Hardly the way to treat any alleged primary reason for war.

The north went to war to defend the union and ended up saving the slaves. The south went to war to save slavery and ended up losing everything.

[donmeaker]

Slavery was the primary reason for the slave power to pretend to secession.

Union was the primary reason for the US to oppose secession.

At the end of the war, slavery was dead. The slave power lost. Anyone sad about that?