Hvem anførte norden i borgerkrigen?
Abraham Lincoln
American Civil War
Selv om ikke alle sydstatsfolk så sig selv som værende i kamp for at bevare slaveriet, havde de fleste af officererne og over en tredjedel af de menige i Lees hær tætte familiebånd til slaveriet. For nordstatsfolk var motivationen derimod primært at bevare Unionen og ikke at afskaffe slaveriet. Abraham Lincoln gjorde konsekvent bevarelsen af Unionen til det centrale mål for krigen, selv om han i stigende grad så slaveriet som et afgørende spørgsmål og gjorde det til et yderligere mål at gøre en ende på det. Lincolns beslutning om at udstede Emancipationsproklamationen gjorde både fredsdemokrater ("Copperheads") og krigsdemokrater vrede, men gav energi til de fleste republikanere. Ved at advare om, at frie sorte ville oversvømme Norden, opnåede Demokraterne gevinster ved valget i 1862, men de fik ikke kontrol over Kongressen. Republikanernes modargument om, at slaveriet var fjendens grundpille, vandt støt opbakning, og demokraterne tabte afgørende ved valget i 1863 i den nordlige stat Ohio, da de forsøgte at genoplive anti-sorte stemninger.
Abraham Lincoln
American Civil War
While not all Southerners saw themselves as fighting to preserve slavery, most of the officers and over a third of the rank and file in Lee's army had close family ties to slavery. To Northerners, in contrast, the motivation was primarily to preserve the Union, not to abolish slavery. Abraham Lincoln consistently made preserving the Union the central goal of the war, though he increasingly saw slavery as a crucial issue and made ending it an additional goal. Lincoln's decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation angered both Peace Democrats ("Copperheads") and War Democrats, but energized most Republicans. By warning that free blacks would flood the North, Democrats made gains in the 1862 elections, but they did not gain control of Congress. The Republicans' counterargument that slavery was the mainstay of the enemy steadily gained support, with the Democrats losing decisively in the 1863 elections in the northern state of Ohio when they tried to resurrect anti-black sentiment.
American Civil War