Reply #13: I will have a slice ala mode [View All]

[hfojvt]

To me the war was not about secession, it was about slavery. People from the north went to war singing about "John Brown's body ..." John Brown gave his life to free slaves, not to undo a secession. The Battle Hymn says "as he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free".
Lincoln may not have sold it that way at the time, but slavery was not "part" of the reason - it was about 97.4% of the reason. "that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

That cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - A new birth of freedom.