1.lincoln said he would support a Constitutional amendment to PERMANENTLY protect slavery in the USA,
2.slavery was DYING an UNlamented natural death by 1860, due to advancements in agriculture,
3.only about 5-6% of Americans EVER owned a slave AND that the PERCENTAGE of slave-ownership were about the same in the north & south,
4. that BOTH lincoln & u.s. grant stated that the war was ONLY to preserve the union.
ending slavery ONLY became a "noble crusade" after it appeared that France & Great Britain might join the CSA in her war for independence.
free dixie,sw
That's a laugh. Britain and France were never even close to recognizing the Confederacy, much less intervening militarily. Of course, it is funny that such an irrelevant factor, to your way of thinking, as slavery was in the war, it was enough to turn European public opinion away from any notion of supporting the southern cause.