During the Bush administration, I even thought the Democratic party would become the "new conservatives", because you know, the way Bush was trampling all over our constitution, and the Democrats were desperately trying to "conserve" it.

Originally posted by johnny2127
Categorically untrue. Read the private papers of Lincoln sometime. This was a deeply held belief in human equality, not a military strategy. Read what he thought and wrote, and stop with this useless drivel. Its like the US version of people saying the Holocaust never happened.
In his inaugural address, delivered on March 4, 1861, Lincoln proclaimed that it was his duty to maintain the Union. He also declared that he had no intention of ending slavery where it existed, or of repealing the Fugitive Slave Law -- a position that horrified African Americans and their white allies. Lincoln's statement, however, did not satisfy the Confederacy, and on April 12 they attacked Fort Sumter, a federal stronghold in Charleston, South Carolina. Federal troops returned the fire. The Civil War had begun.
Lincoln's chance came after the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam in September of 1862. He issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22. The proclamation warned the Confederate states to surrender by January 1, 1863, or their slaves would be freed.