French students have some questions

[My Name Is Kate]

Lincoln himself said that his number one concern was keeping the Union together and that he would do it by freeing all the slaves or none of the slaves. So the plight of the slaves was a side issue for him. That is using slavery as a political agenda. After the first one-hundred-thousand-or-so deaths, don't you think that maybe he should have rethought his strategy? What other source do I need other than Lincoln himself? But I did read "Sic Semper Tyrannis" by William L. Richter aka Wild Bill, and a paper that he wrote entitled "Deliberately and Personally Conceived": Did Lincoln and the Republicans Intentionally Cause the Civil War?", plus as much info as I could find online, including parts of the book, "Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery" by James Oakes.

I am not putting 100% of the death toll of the Civil War squarely on Lincoln's shoulders, but a good portion of it does belong there. Why the South could not see that slavery was wrong and should be abolished, I can't explain, other than that they liked too much the political power it gave them.