What Were The North's Motives After The Civil War

Less than one hundred years after the United States gained independence, the American Civil War began. This fight was between the North who at the start wanted to reestablish the Union and the South who wanted to create their own country so they could do as they pleased. In the end, the North won. This was not without hundreds of thousands of casualties on both sides, the Civil War is widely known as the war with the most American deaths of all time. By the end of the war, the North was fighting for the abolition of slavery but the North's motives changed throughout the war because of the Emancipation Proclamation, integration of the army, and the change in the public's perspective.

The Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1st,
But Lincoln still had to fight to get that land back to the United States. But this helped bring together the North and changed what they were fighting for in many ways. This proclamation brought many African Americans to join the Union army and fight for the North. This showed the Union was now fully fighting for the end of slavery, which allowed many black people to put their faith in the North’s fight. Before this, the North was clear their reasons for fighting were to reunite the Union. As Abraham Lincoln said in 1862, “My most important goal in this struggle is to save the Union, and not to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it” (Document B). But he saw how making something such as the Emancipation Proclamation could help them win the war. Even if Lincoln’s top priority was to get the Union back together, he still had to win the war. By issuing this statement, he got not only black people to support the North but also made sure other countries would not give resources or show support to the South. Abraham Lincoln always saw slavery as horrible and inhumane, as he said in 1859, “I do