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The Civil War
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In July 1861, Congress adopted a resolution by a vote of 117
to 2 in the House and 30 to 5 in the Senate that read: "This
war is not waged...for the purpose of overthrowing or interfering
with the established institutions of those States, but to maintain
the States unimpaired; and that as soon as these objects are accomplished
the war should cease." Fearful of alienating the slave states
that remained in the Union--Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and
Missouri--or of antagonizing Northerners who would support anti-war
Democrats if the conflict were transformed into a war to abolish
slavery, Lincoln felt that he had to proceed cautiously. Nevertheless,
opponents of slavery regarded the war as a providential opportunity
to destroy slavery and the slave power.
In its analysis of the Civil War's causes, the London Times
rejected the notion that this was a war about slavery. It argued
that the conflict had the same roots as most wars: territorial
aggrandizement, political power, and economic supremacy. But few
Northerners or Southerners saw the war in such simple terms. To
many white southern soldiers, it was a war to preserve their liberty
and their way of life, to prevent abolition and its consequences--race
war, racial amalgamation, and, according to one militant Southerner's
words, "the Africanization of the South." To many northern
soldiers, it was a war to preserve the Union, uphold the Constitution,
and defeat a ruthless slave power, which had threatened to subvert
republican ideals of liberty and equality.
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