The birthing of the Civil War (or rather, 'War of Northern Aggression') seems to expose the notion of Lincoln knowingly executing an end-around on behalf of his industrialist overlords with which to circumvent the Constitution. Fort Sumter lit a fuse that Lincoln and his fellow totalitarians *knew* would give them the opportunity to claim "SEE?? THEY STARTED IT!!"
Interestingly enough, The Posse Comitatus Act -- enacted in 1878 -- was a response to and subsequent prohibition of the military occupation of the former Confederate States by the United States Army during the ten years of the so-called Reconstruction (1867–1877) following the CW. (Yes -- the American SOUTH was a nation-within-a-nation that was OCCUPIED and its assets plundered.)
As has been reinforced (DiogenesLamp has painstakingly illustrated and demonstrated the case), economic reasons and insider monkey-business was THE driving force of the CW. "Freeing the slaves" was merely the public mask, aided by a willing, compensated media, lending the much needed moral reason for the amazingly amount of bloodshed, rape of the South, and raw abuse of unconstitutional federal power.
But here's the key fact (remember those, facts? They're stubborn): so did Jefferson Davis know full well that he was starting Civil War when he launched military assault on Union troops in Union Fort Sumter.
He was warned by his own people!
Indeed, Davis expected something very important immediately from his war -- he expected Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas to join his Confederacy, and they did not disappoint him, well, except for Western Virginia.
HangUpNow: "...economic reasons and insider monkey-business was THE driving force of the CW.
'Freeing the slaves' was merely the public mask, aided by a willing, compensated media, lending the much needed moral reason for the amazingly amount of bloodshed, rape of the South, and raw abuse of unconstitutional federal power."
All nonsense.
In fact, Northern leaders were primarily concerned to preserve the Union, not so much for economic reasons (sorry Marxists, but you missed the truth yet again), but rather because, in Lincoln's words referring to his Oath of Office:
As a secondary issue, Northerners well knew that civil war would provide an opportunity to accomplish their long-term abolitionist ideals, and abolish slavery.
It was an extremely important side-effect.
As for the economics of it, they were certainly as important to Lincoln in his day as they were to, for example, Franklin Roosevelt in WWII, meaning as always economics are significant, but not the driving motivation.