On the record
Slavery was made the pretext for, and, I believe, was, the real cause of the war.
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Sherman asserts that slavery was not only a pretext but also the fundamental cause of the Civil War.
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The worst evil that could befall our country is civil war, but the outrages in Kansas cannot be continued much longer without producing it.
Some of you broke down the only political organization that could compete with us, and thus gave us an easy victory.
What a pity, he said, it would have been if so great a country as the United States had been disrupted on account of slavery.
Resolved, That the people who constitute the supreme power in the United States, should guard with jealous care the rights of the several states, as independent governments.
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