Mr. Wilkins taught Social Studies in Eighth Grade and HE said it was about slavery. So that's what it was about!

Oh, and Abraham Lincoln made the comment that the confederates wanted for themselves the liberty that they would not grant others, their slaves. Trust Abe to boil the argument down to its essentials.

Oh, and Grant wrote about the surrender at Appomatox:
"I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause though that was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse."

And Lincoln again:
"In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free--honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just--a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless."