It was if free men were to show they could govern themselves.
Walt
What an odd statement?!
Were free men not drafted into service such that few might prove their ability to rule others?
Nonsense. America was by no means the first attempt at self government nor will it be the last. All of this "experiment in democracy" nonsense is a load of bull offered to dupes such as yourself by the vilest of knaves seeking personal gain off of their ability to decieve you. Nor would self government have collapsed and dissappeared from the world if it had split into two adhering countries rather than one.
The simple fact of the matter is that Lincoln's little war not only failed to ensure that men could govern themselves but in fact amply demonstrated the state usurping that very right from the governed! So if anything it hastened the so-called "experiment in democracy's" demise by violating its central tenet of consent.
"Notwithstanding all the proclamations we have made to mankind, within the last ninety years, that our government rests on consent, and that that was the rightful basis on which any government could rest, the late war has practically demonstrated that our government rests upon force --- as much so as any government that ever existed. The North has thus virtually said to the world: It was all very well to prate of consent, so long as the objects to be accomplished were to liberate ourselves from our connexion with England, and also to coax a scattered and jealous people into a great national union; but now that those purposes have been accomplished, and the power of the North has become consolidated, it is sufficient for us --- as for all governments --- simply to say: Our power is our right." - Lysander Spooner, 1867