For the Civil War, was Lincoln really this well meaning person who wanted to stop slavery because of human rights like taught in school, or did he start the war mainly against slavery in a interest of economy before human rights?

by [deleted]

[deleted]

LT-Riot

or did he start the war mainly against slavery in a interest of economy before human rights?>

I am not 100% what you are asking here but I feel obligated to point out that Lincoln did not start the U.S. Civil War. The civil war started less than a year after Lincoln was elected in the summer of 61' when Confederate 'soldiers' attacked an American military installation at Fort Sumter.

It is pretty well documented both in private and public statements, that Lincoln's first priority was the preservation of the American Union of States and his firm belief that individual states do NOT have the right to secede. The most famous of these statements of course being Lincoln's response to the editor of the New York Times in 1862:

I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored the nearer the Union will be ‘the Union as it was.’ If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.>

This is the one most people point to when trying to develop Lincoln's intentions in the Civil War. The next biggest point was the Emancipation Proclamation following the battle of Antietam where Lincoln freed all slaves in rebel states. Note I said REBEL states. Slaves in slave-legal border states that were nominally Union, did not have their slaves freed at this time. This backs up the traditional line of thinking that Lincoln freed the slaves first as economic weapon against the south who had major economic sectors dependent on slave labor.

So, does all this mean that Lincoln was a cold calculator whose only imperative was winning the war? Not at all as seen in this prety famous letter to Joshua Speed, a slave holding personal friend of Lincoln

You know I dislike slavery; and you fully admit the abstract wrong of it... I also acknowledge your rights and my obligations, under the constitution, in regard to your slaves. I confess I hate to see the poor creatures hunted down, and caught, and carried back to their stripes, and unrewarded toils; but I bite my lip and keep quiet. In 1841 you and I had together a tedious low-water trip, on a Steam Boat from Louisville to St. Louis. You may remember, as I well do, that from Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio, there were, on board, ten or a dozen slaves, shackled together with irons. That sight was a continued torment to me; and I see something like it every time I touch the Ohio, or any other slave-border. It is hardly fair for you to assume, that I have no interest in a thing which has, and continually exercises, the power of making me miserable. You ought rather to appreciate how much the great body of the Northern people do crucify their feelings, in order to maintain their loyalty to the Constitution and the Union

I think in both private and public statements it is clear that on a personal level, Lincoln detested slavery and , grading on a historical curve, was most definitely a progressive and abolitionist. (I say on a historical curve because Lincoln made many comments based on false pseudo science at the time that we would today consider extremely racist). He was most definitely opposed to the entire institution of slavery. I emphasize, on a 'personal' level.

In terms of policy, it seems equally apparent that Lincoln's first priority was enforcing that States.Cannot.Leave.The.Union. And it is a long long long way to Lincoln's second priority. Lincoln, I believe, is nothing if not an absolute professional and I believe that while he did not support slavery those personal feelings had almost no impact on his policy. His policy which was to keep the Union together by any means necessary.