“As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free . . .”
There is that, John Brown’s northern-financed murder raid, and Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech which supported southern fears that, if elected, Lincoln would use the military to violently overthrow the pro-slavery United States Constitution and destroy the South physically and economically.
For some reason the South did not want to be destroyed.
The North could have introduced in 1860 (or 1800 for that matter) a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery peacefully. But the North did not think it was in their economic and political best self interest to do so.
If a proposed constitutional amendment to abolish slavery had not received the necessary votes in 1860, the North would have been no worse off in my mind - Lincoln could still have claimed to have moral and legal authority attack and kill his economic and political rivals.
We may never know the real reasons Lincoln decided to go to war. But we do know Lincoln and the North never tried to introduce a constitutional amendment to peacefully abolish slavery before they invaded the South.
“We may never know the real reasons Lincoln decided to go to war.”
Jefferson Davis gave Lincoln all the reason he needed to go to war.