And yet that's exactly what they did.
If Lincoln wanted to abolish slavery, he would have to do it through force of arms - in other words, use violence to overthrow the pro-slavery U.S. constitution and to kill or imprison anyone who opposed.
Lincoln entered office with the goal of preventing the spread of slavery. It was the South who forced the war upon Lincoln in their goal of furthering their secession, which they did in defense of slavery.
For that he would need a pretext for war which he found in the Gulf of Tonkin incident. I meant to say the Fort Sumter incident.
The ever popular "We wuz so stoopid we done fell into Likum's trap" defense.
“And yet that’s exactly what they did.”
Such words, in this context, must have been written in jest.
Because I like you I will express a disproportionally large laugh.
Is it your testimony that the north fought a war they did not want to abolish slavery that the states of New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Delaware and Maryland voted to enshrine into the U.S. constitution?
Like you, I would jump at the chance to believe this exculpatory explanation if I did not know of the mistreatment of black people in northern states before Lincoln's War.
And during Lincoln's War.
And after Lincoln's War.