If the causes of the war were manifold and perplexing, the exact object
for which each of the contending parties did battle is only less
difficult of precise definition. A brief consideration of some of the
many forms in which the popular voice has sought to express the
conception will serve to illustrate the truth of this suggestion.
"The North fought to preserve the Union—the South, to destroy it."
That one great element of the Northern people took up arms at the call
of the Federal Government to prevent a dismemberment of the Union is
undoubtedly true. That another element regarded the maintenance of the
Union under the existing constitution as unworthy of effort is equally
true. The first went forth at the earliest call to preserve the Union
under the old constitution; the second came later to the battle to fight
for a Union with a constitution which should decree the abolition of
slavery. That the Southern people sought to establish the independence
of their new Confederacy and to that extent a dismemberment of the Union
is true, but that they desired the destruction of the Union and the
principles of liberty and law which its establishment was designed to
assure are conclusions not easily deducible from their aspirations or
necessities.
"The North fought for empire, the South for independence."
That the North fought to keep within the limits of the Union the domain
stretching from the Potomac to the Rio Grande is true, but that the
great mass of her people were actuated by a desire to hold the land as
tributary and its people as subjects is not true. The splendid ideal of
a Republic, stretching from ocean to ocean, and securing to its growing
millions the dual blessings which spring from National integrity and
home rule, we may well believe was ever before them. That one great
element of the Southern people fought for independence and all the
inspiring ideals which the term implies is true, though it is equally
true that joined with them in the battle were states the dominant
elements of whose people cherished no primal desire for separation from
the Union, but resisted the authorities of the latter because of their
convictions that its policy of coercion was illegal and destructive of
the principle upon which the Republic had been founded.
"The North fought to destroy slavery; the South, to extend and maintain
it."
That slavery was the most potent factor in developing the conditions
which finally precipitated war is true. That the two parties to the
conflict joined battle upon the issue of its maintenance or destruction
seems inconsistent with their solemnly declared purposes and promises,
made at the time. President Lincoln at his inauguration proclaimed: "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." This pledge of the
President was but a reaffirmation of the platform of his party, and both
were, in turn, confirmed by the declaration of Congress that the war was
fought, "to defend and maintain the supremacy of the constitution and to
preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality and rights of the
several states unimpaired."
President Davis presented the attitude of his people and government when
he declared: "All we ask is to be let alone—that those who never held
power over us shall not now attempt our subjugation by arms." And after
three years of desperate war, he declared to the representatives of
President Lincoln:—
"We are not fighting for slavery. We are fighting for
independence.... Say to Mr. Lincoln for me that I shall at any
time be pleased to receive proposals for peace, on the basis of
our independence. It will be useless to approach me with any
other."[1]
That the people of America in the nineteenth century of the Christian
era should have resorted to war in order to settle questions of
constitutional and moral right must forever constitute an impeachment of
the capacity for self-government and the ethical standards of the men
responsible for its occurrence.
The charge that the people of twenty-three states in four of which
slavery was legalized arose in arms against their fellow-citizens of the
remaining eleven and, despite the constitutional safeguards with which
the institution in the latter states was confessedly surrounded, invaded
their land, burnt thousands of their homes and killed tens of thousands
of their citizens in a desperate determination to destroy slavery, is as
compromising to American character as the counter accusation that the
people of eleven states, with no existing menace to their constitutional
rights in regard to slavery, resorted to secession and aggressive war in
order to secure new guarantees for the safety of the institution.
Charges so dishonoring to the American people should not be made and
above all should not be accepted as true—unless compelled by the
inexorable facts of history.