On July 25, 1861, the U.S. Congress passed the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution, stating that the war with the seceded states — those of the then-recent Confederacy — was being fought to preserve the Union, not to end slavery.
In December, Congress attempted to reaffirm the resolution, but it failed after a motion advanced by abolitionist Representative Thaddeus Stevens (R-Penn.).
One reply on “Only to Preserve the Union?”
Congress rejected an attempt not long after to reäffirm the Resolution.
Simple narratives about why the Civil War was fought generally fail because the war involved many people with differing and evolving postures, which postures didn’t always reflect their evolving interests.