What did President Lincoln hope and fight for during the US Civil War?

Answer 1

The restoration of the Union. because he wont to save the Union. I think that President Lincoln was concerned with reunification first, last,

and always. The slavery issue while important to him, never reached a

priority level above "One Nation".

Answer 2

US President Lincoln's goals and hopes for the War, changed as military actions forced a new look for Lincoln regarding the war. In the beginning of the conflict, the weeks and months after Fort Sumter, Lincoln's belief, and thus his hope and goal, was to quickly end the Southern rebellion. He believed the Union could be reunited and the slavery issue could be settled as a united nation. As it became clear that the South was able to put together field armies that were not easily beaten, Lincoln realized his goals had to change. His belief evolved into one where he saw that only a military solution was the answer. He knew that Southern armies had to be destroyed and Southern cities captured. Yet, as he said in his second inaugural address in March, 1865, he blamed each side for the war.

Answer 3

President Lincoln's primary purpose for sending troops to end the Southern rebellion was to end it. He was a "Unionist" before any other major issue. He personally was strongly against slavery, however, in an open letter to the New York Tribune, he stated that if he could reunify the nation without abolishing slavery, that would be his first choice. If slavery was part of the end to the rebellion he would welcome it too. However, his first anti-slavery preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, stated that slavery in the Confederacy would be abolished. The slavery in the four slave border states were not effected.