Reply #63: In a nutshell ...

[RoyGBiv]

Several Southern states seceded due to various disputes over issues related to the institution of slavery. The reason the United States went to war was to enforce federal law in areas that had claimed they were no longer subject to it, i.e. to dispute the notion that unilateral secession was valid. One could certainly argue that the Civil War may not have happened had equality been a fundamental concept put in practice within the nation as a whole, and in that sense, one could certainly say that the war was fought because of a lack of equality. But, the war was not fought "over" equality, in the sense of defining all men, regardless of race or social status, as equal based on the outcome. The concept of all men being created equal was a generalized ideal put forth in the nation's founding documents, but it was not an ideal realized or in very many ways even sought in the United States as a whole prior to Civil War.

Most people seem not to understand at all the context in which The Gettysburg Address was given. Prior to Gettysburg, war weariness in the Union was at a high mark. The New York City draft riots in which Blacks were targeted intentionally and murdered for their supposedly "causing" the war was fresh in Lincoln's mind. The twin Union victories of Vicksburg and Gettysburg relieved some of that weariness and gave many in the Union hope that the war wasn't lost and that their sons weren't dying in horrific numbers in vain, but one could not say that morale was incredibly high. Lincoln's words while dedicating the Gettysburg cemetery were intended to put the whole conflict into context and make it about something again, about something more than just acquisition of land or protecting a sterile theory of government. The speech is genius to be sure, but it did not completely reflect the actual reasons the war began or why it was fought by most people. That is, Lincoln was trying to convince people there was still a reason to fight the war, and the reason was to help achieve and perpetuate the high ideals of the founders.