The Civil War was doubly tragic because it was completely Slavery had been ended in other nations withthe stroke of a pen, and yet in the mighty United States thecountry was willing to go to war over the issue of whetherslavery should remain. The southerners felt that it wastheir constitutional right to own slaves and did not see atime when they should be required to give up that right.However, upon the election of Lincoln as President, thesoutherners felt threatened, and felt their slave holdingrights were being threatened, and in an effort to protectthese rights they chose to secede from the union. Thenortherners and Lincoln saw the importance of maintaining aunited country, set out to bring back the seceded states.Thus the Civil War began. During the civil war manyAmericans were either killed or wounded, this number wasonly surpassed by World War II. While the civil waroriginally began as a quest to bring the southern statesback to the union. However, the goal of the war did soonchange to that of abolition. While the war may have seemednecessary to the soldiers and governments who wereparticipating, in retrospect it was unnecessary. In threeseparate European countries, slavery had been abolishedprior to the American Civil War, and each without arms beingraised. Slavery had been abolished in Britain in 1838,Sweden in 1848, and in Holland in 1863. It indeed could havesimilarly been abolished in the United States. However, thesoutherners, who were dependent on the slave institution,refused to give up their right to own slaves easily. Had theSouth been more progressively thinking many lives would havebeen saved and blood need not have been shed in the name ofslavery. This is particularly true because if the south hadgiven up their right to free labor (slavery), they wouldhave soon received the gift of mechanical labor. Indeed theymight have profited more from the use of the machines whichwere soon to be invented, as they did not requir...
