[quote=SK in CV][quote=Allan from Fallbrook]Except for the fact that Lincoln had no such option. He had to preserve the Union at all costs and when it became apparent that the Southern states were bent on secession, war was inevitable.

A common mistake, and one that clearly informs spdrun’s thinking, is that the Civil War was fought over slavery and thus slavery (versus abolition) was the primary driving force. It wasn’t. This was an inevitable collision between two cultures: the rapidly industrializing and modern North and the agrarian and antebellum South.

Slavery was a factor, but not the primary factor, thus the Emancipation Proclamation was not signed until 1863, well into the war.[/quote]

I think that’s an over-simplification. The conflict was centered on social/economic differences between the north and the south. But the primary difference, both socially and economically was slavery. The north was industrial. The south was agrarian, and integral to the southern economy was cheap slave labor. If not but for that slave labor, the war would not have happened. It was pretty much a done deal as soon as Lincoln was elected.[/quote]

SK: Oversimplification? Crap, I thought I had captured the entire casus belli in those three brief paragraphs!

No argument that slave labor underpinned the Southern economy, but slavery was not the primary factor behind the opening of hostilities. Lincoln struggled against quite a few Northerners who were adamantly opposed to abolition. It took over two years of war the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.