He did not make slavery a major point until he saw the north losing ground and he needed to gin up support. Then it became all about slavery.
What the Lincoln/Douglas debates about then? Those took place before the civil war didn’t they?
No, it’s pretty well documented what he offered the southern states to prevent secession. What he offered them was keeping slavery which once again, they themselves stated was the reason for secession. It was about slavery from start to finish.
Then what was it about BEFORE slaverybecame the issue?
Did the war start over some other issue?
(serious question)
[Like forcing them to buy health care maybe?]
True, but you get blank stares if you mention the Corwin Amendment and Lincoln’s endorsement of it in his first inaugural address.
By contrast, for the insurrection, it was all about slavery from the first days.
At the end days, with shortages of manpower, they had a brief window to supplement the insurrection manpower by giving slaves their freedome and making soldiers of them. They didn’t do it.
“If slaves can make soldiers, then our entire theory of government is in error.”
Jeff Davis was the US senator responsible for butchering the statue on top of the Capital. It was originally going to have a Phrygian cap, an ancient symbol of liberty, refering to the Roman ceremony that freed a slave, touching him with a white rod (vindicating him) and granting him the cap of liberty.
Jeff Davis wasn’t about having a freed slave on top of the Capitol. He had it changed to a helmet of Minerva.