President Lincoln in his inaugural address declared:—"One section of
our country believes slavery is right and ought to be extended, while
the other believes slavery is wrong and ought not to be extended. This
is the only substantial dispute."
Other voices proclaimed that there existed an "irrepressible conflict"
between the North and the South in which the abolition or maintenance of
slavery was the gage of battle. The two assertions may be combined and
the question considered whether Virginia seceded either to extend
slavery into the territories or to perpetuate the institution within her
borders.