This is not a personal attack, just another viewpoint. There a few more famous quotes concerning slavery that should be presented:

"I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything. I do not understand that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. My understanding is that I can just let her alone."-ABRAHAM LINCOLN

"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. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause."-ABRAHAM LINCOLN

'No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give Congress the power to abolish or interfere within any state with the domestic institutions thereof, including that a person's held to labor or service by laws of said State. "-ABRAHAM LINCOLN

"Do the people of the South really entertain fear that a Republican administration would directly or indirectly interfere with their slaves, or with them about their slaves? If they do, I wish to assure you that once, as a friend, and still I hope not as an enemy, that there is no cause for such fears. The South would be in no more danger in this respect than it was in the days of Washington."-ABRAHAM LINCOLN(The Repubs were the liberals back then.)

"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government and to form one that suits them better. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can, may make their own of such territory as they inhabit. More than this, a majority of any portion of such people may revolutionize, putting down a minority intermingling with or near them who oppose their movement. "- ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Every time I hear the old tired rhetoric about the "Civil War" being about slavery, I want to puke. Lincoln cared no more about the plight of slaves than he did the dog crap he scraped off his shoes. Only when he realized that he could use slavery as a political volleyball did he adopt an abolitionist stance. For someone who claimed to abhor slavery he could have found a better family to marry into. Yes, the Todds were slave owners.(GASP!) Many of the "Founding Fathers" were slave owners.

The "Civil War" was no more about slave freedom than Operation Iraqi Freedom was about Iraqi freedom. Like the Iraqis, enslaved blacks were mere pawns in a much larger scheme.

The South was not waging a war of aggression, it was a war of secession. A right that Lincoln paid lip service to(see above quotes).

Before everyone gets out their flame throwers for the McMedic flambe, this is not a defense of the institution of slavery. No more than the war was about slavery. The war was about economic dominance and states rights.

If we must make the war about a color issue, it would be about something white. Cotton. Cotton was king and made the South an economic powerhouse and that didn't set well with the central government.

To reinforce this, Robert E. Lee(Lincolns FIRST choice to lead the Union Army), turned down Lincolns offer to command the union army stating "loyalty to Virginia ought to take precedence over that which is due the Federal Government." He further proclaimed that he had "no greater duty than to his native Virginia." Lee also was anti-secession. In a letter to his son he wrote:

"I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than a dissolution of the Union. It would be an accumulation of all the evils we complain of, and I am willing to sacrifice everything but honour for its preservation. I hope, therefore, that all constitutional means will be exhausted before there is a resort to force. Secession is nothing but revolution. The framers of our Constitution never exhausted so much labour, wisdom, and forbearance in its formation, and surrounded it with so many guards and securities, if it was intended to be broken by every member of the Confederacy at will. It is intended for 'perpetual Union,' so expressed in the preamble, and for the establishment of a government, not a compact, which can only be dissolved by revolution, or the consent of all the people in convention assembled. It is idle to talk of secession: anarchy would have been established, and not a government, by Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and all the other patriots of the Revolution. ... Still, a Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets, and in which strife and civil war are to take the place of brotherly love and kindness, has no charm for me. I shall mourn for my country and for the welfare and progress of mankind. If the Union is dissolved and the Government disrupted, I shall return to my native State and share the miseries of my people, and, save in defense will draw my sword on none."-Robert E. Lee

The point I'm trying to make with my diatribe is that revisionist history has portrayed an illusion of the South being composed of brutal, sadistic flesh mongers and the North, led by a messianic Lincoln, conducting a crusade to free the poor, oppressed slaves. If only it were that simple.