(10-01-2016, 12:47 AM)Galen Wrote: Lincoln himself in his First Inaugural Address made it very clear that he had no intention to interfere with the institution of slavery.
He sure did. But the South did not believe him. Read the Cornerstone speech. It lays out the Confederate position clearly. The South had capitulated to the North in the Compromise of 1850, allowing the North to obtain a majority in both Houses of Congress, which would enable the North to free the slaves by Federal law if they so chose. As a measure of good faith the North agreed to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act. Problem was most Northerners did not give a shit about Southern planter property rights and the law was often ignored. Not only that, but there was a whole network of terrorists who at their peak were stealing on the order of $150 million annually in today's money from Southern farmers.
Sure Republican and Democratic elites did not want war anymore than their modern counterparts want Donald Trump. But the elites cannot always succeed in getting their masses to believe what they want them to. Plenty of Northerners believed elements of the slave power conspiracy. For their part, Southerners believed that the Republican party was secretly controlled by a cabal of Radical Republicans who wanted to abolish slavery. Many suspected Lincoln was secretly one of them. With so much at stake* Southerners could not afford to believe Northern promises, which could easily be lies.
When you consider that just a few years after 1860, lo and behold, a posse of Radical Republicans had indeed emerged and somehow Lincoln's war aims had shifted from restoring the union to abolishing slavery. This confirmed Southern belief that Lincoln was lying--the North would never allow them to keep their slaves. Particularly now that states had had the temerity to secede. This was like the signing of the Declaration of Independence. By July 1776 there was no way the colonists and the British government could avoid war. The same was true in April 1861 so they shelled Fort Sumter.
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*It is important to take into consideration the sheer value of a slave. In 1860, a slave was worth about $145,000 in today's money. About 20% of white folks owned one or more slaves. Having just one slave made you a substantial citizen. Own several and you were a comparatively rich man. Slaves were so highly valued because they were so much more versatile than other work animals. One slave was worth as much as 30 pack horses or 6 riding horses. Slaves represented about 60% of Southern wealth and a much higher fraction of relatively liquid assets. Any threat to slavery amounted to financial devastation of a fifth of the Southern white population. Note only that, but many poor whites found employment on plantations as overseers or on slave patrols, making their livelihood tied to slavery.