They recognized that slavery was a moral issue and not merely an economic interest, and that to recognize it explicitly in their Constitution would be in explosive contradiction to the concept of sovereignty they had set forth in the Declaration of 1776 that `` all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Moreover, prudence alone would indicate that, unless the local customs are already ready to fall when pushed, the results of direct economic action everywhere upon national chain stores will likely be simply to give undue advantage to local and state stores which conform to these customs, leading to greater decentralization and local autonomy within the company, or even ( as the final self-defeat of an unjust application of economic pressure to correct injustice ) to its going out of business in certain sections of the country ( as, for that matter, the Quakers, who once had many meetings in the pre-Civil War South, largely went out of business in that part of the country over the slavery issue, never to recover a large number of southern adherents ).

Incurably optimistic, dogmatic, and utterly fearless, in his youth a devout Baptist, in spite of his friendship for the Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier ( 1807-1892 ) he eventually attacked the orthodox churches for what he deemed their cowardly compromising on the slavery issue and in his invariably ardent manner was emphatically unorthodox and denied the plenary inspiration of the Bible.

" The Rail Candidate "— Lincoln's 1860 candidacy is depicted as held up by the slavery issue — a slave on the left and party organization on the right.

Lincoln's success depended on his reputation as a moderate on the slavery issue, and his strong support for Whiggish programs of internal improvements and the protective tariff.

Copperheads criticized Lincoln for refusing to compromise on the slavery issue.

Lincoln understood that the Federal government's power to end slavery was limited by the Constitution, which before 1865, committed the issue to individual states.

The issue has been further complicated by historical revisionists, who have tried to improve the image of the South by lessening the role of slavery.

Abraham Lincoln consistently made preserving the Union the central goal of the war, though he increasingly saw slavery as a crucial issue and made ending it an additional goal.

In the presidential election in 1848, the Democratic Party split over the slavery issue, with the abolitionists leaving the party and forming the Free Soil Party, and making Martin Van Buren their nominee.

This commenced one of the most controversial sessions of Congress, as the issue of slavery took front stage.

It became apparent that, as the slavery issue took center stage, the slaveholding states were more reluctant to agree with the bill, with the primary antagonists being the senators in Virginia, Texas, North Carolina and Alabama.

In the summer of 1862 he said, " If you persist in forcing the issue of slavery against the government, I say in the face of heaven: Give me my government and let the negroes go.

In January 1864 Johnson organized a gathering of his state's Union loyalists, where resolutions were passed to elect county officials throughout the state, including a plan for a convention to dispose of the slavery issue ; also adopted was a very controversial and mandatory oath for voters, to protect and preserve the Union in the future.

In the 1850s Chicago gained national political prominence as the home of Senator Stephen Douglas, the champion of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and " popular sovereignty " approach to the issue of the spread of slavery.

In the 19th century, human rights became a central concern over the issue of slavery.

Adams also predicted the Union's dissolution over the slavery issue, but said that if the South became independent there would be a series of bloody slave revolts.

He refused to honor the House ’ s gag rule banning discussion or debate of the slavery issue.

Although any move to censure Adams over the slavery petition was ultimately abandoned, the House did address the issue of petitions from enslaved persons.

Adams predicted the likelihood of the Union's dissolution over the slavery issue, and was a key opponent of the Mexican – American War for this reason.

Finally, the Wilmot Proviso injected the issue of slavery in the new territories, even though Polk had insisted to Congress and in his diary that this had never been a war goal.

Douglas hoped popular sovereignty would enable democracy to triumph, so he would not have to take a side on the issue of slavery.

While the bill was silent on this issue, slavery would have been prohibited under the terms of the Missouri Compromise.

Even two decades ago in Go Down, Moses Faulkner was looking to the more urban future with a glimmer of hope that through its youth and its new way of life the South might be reborn and the curse of slavery erased from its soil.

Much as he abhorred slavery, Lincoln was always willing to concede to each `` slave state '' the right to decide independently whether to continue or end it.

The Providence Daily Journal answered the Daily Post by stating that the raid of John Brown was characteristic of Democratic acts of violence and that `` He was acting in direct opposition to the Republican Party, who proclaim as one of their cardinal principles that they do not interfere with slavery in the states ''.

Following Day was Woodbury who spoke of his disapproval of Brown's attempt at servile insurrection, his admiration of Brown's character, and his opposition to slavery.

An excellent article was published recently in the Journal Of The Church Peace Union by a South African journalist on the inhuman economic conditions of the blacks in South Africa, amounting to virtual slavery, and the economic complicity of both the government and the people of the United States in these conditions.

The movement to end Negro slavery began before 1815 and mounted after that year until, as a result of the Civil War, emancipation was achieved.

Long before 1815 the Christian conscience was leading some to declare slavery wrong and to act accordingly.

The nineteenth-century immigration, whether Protestant or Roman Catholic, was not so much concerned, for very few if any among them held slaves: they were mostly in the Northern states where slavery had disappeared or was on the way out, or were too poverty-stricken to own slaves.

Lincoln later noted that this move was " partly on account of slavery " but mainly due to land title difficulties.

He was known for his " free soil " stance of opposing both slavery and abolitionism.

By the 1850s, slavery was still legal in the southern United States, but had been generally outlawed in the northern states, such as Illinois.

Foner ( 2010 ) contrasts the abolitionists and anti-slavery Radical Republicans of the Northeast who saw slavery as a sin, with the conservative Republicans who thought it was bad because it hurt white people and blocked progress.

Foner argues that Lincoln was a moderate in the middle, opposing slavery primarily because it violated the republicanism principles of the Founding Fathers, especially the equality of all men and democratic self-government as expressed in the Declaration of Independence.

Lincoln warned that " The Slave Power " was threatening the values of republicanism, and accused Douglas of distorting the values of the Founding Fathers that all men are created equal, while Douglas emphasized his Freeport Doctrine, that local settlers were free to choose whether to allow slavery or not, and accused Lincoln of having joined the abolitionists.

Lincoln stated Douglas's popular sovereignty theory was a threat to the nation's morality and that Douglas represented a conspiracy to extend slavery to free states.

By December 1863 a proposed constitutional amendment that would outlaw slavery absolutely was brought to Congress for passage.

After four years of warfare, mostly within the Southern states, the Confederacy surrendered and slavery was abolished everywhere in the nation.

The Republican Party was determined to prevent any spread of slavery, and many Southern leaders had threatened secession if the Republican candidate, Lincoln, won the 1860 election.

To Northerners, in contrast, the motivation was primarily to preserve the Union, not to abolish slavery.

The Republicans ' counterargument that slavery was the mainstay of the enemy steadily gained support, with the Democrats crushed at the 1863 elections in Ohio when they tried to resurrect anti-black sentiment.