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The Nations Divide
Although seven states had seceded from the Union bYFeburary 1861, eight other slave states had not decided if they were were the was going the join Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy or continue to be on the side of Abe Lincoln and the Union. Theirindecision related to Lincoln's promise not to infere with slavery in the states where it already existed . -
The beginning
in 1861 the central issue dividing the North and South was the expansion of slavery. Once the South suceded from the Union, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confedrate States of American was, faced with the task of buliding and maintaining the unity of the confedracy. -
Abe tries but fails
President Abraham Lincoln's goal was the preservation od the Union, more important even than finding a solution to issue of slavery. Lincoln made his objective clear when he wrote " I would love to save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the constitution. My paramount object in this stugggle to save the Union.