If that is true, we can forever dismiss the notion the North was fighting for the moral cause of “freeing the slaves.”
And all the self-serving hymn singing about “as he died to make men holy let us die to make men free” was just a pretext.
It’s probably good you got that off your chest.
This has been explained to you on other threads but you seem to thick headed to get it. The south seceded because they believed slavery was threatened. The United States, following the precedent set by President Andrew Jackson, viewed secession as rebellion. They attempted to continue to carry out the duties of the federal government throughout the states. When they attempted to resupply a federal fort they were fired on by the rebels. The United States then called up troops to suppress the rebellion.
During the course of suppressing the rebellion the US used the well established contraband of war theory to free all slaves in areas of the country that had taken up arms against the duly elected government of the US. The US government later adopted the policy to end slavery completely throughout the US in the only constitutional authorized manner that it could, by passing a constitutional amendment.
So the south rebelled to protect slavery, the US went to war to suppress a rebellion and later adopted the end of slavery as a goal. This gave the US the moral high ground.