Page 123 - Dragon Flood

The Committee on Public Information

Gettysburg Dead

The reasons for war are seldom what the history books declare. The American Civil War was
not entered into as a struggle to end slavery. Abraham Lincoln is frequently touted as “the
Great Emancipator,” yet his own words reveal that abolishing slavery was not upon his
mind when he set the Union on a course for war with the South. Although numerous
statements by Lincoln reveal that he considered slavery to be a moral evil, at the same time
he stated that he believed it outside of his rights, or power, to abolish it.

I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that ‘I have no purpose, directly
or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I
believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.’
[Source: Lincoln's First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861]

My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to
destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if
I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some
and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored
race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear
because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall
believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe
doing more will help the cause.
[Source: The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume V,
"Letter to Horace Greeley" (August 22, 1862), p. 388]

Why was Lincoln so driven to preserve the Union? Even without the Southern states, the
North was far larger in territory and population than the original thirteen colonies of the
founding fathers of America. At the time the war was fought there were thirty-four states,
and the nation had expanded ever westward toward the Pacific Ocean. There were vast
swaths of land that had not yet been settled.

The authors of Lincoln’s Wrath suggest that Lincoln was inspired by a vision of America as
a mighty nation that would rival Great Britain. Standing in the way of this national vision
was the very form of America’s union as a voluntary confederation of independent states.
Lincoln saw a need for a powerful federal government to not only bind the country together,