The Civil War had no good guys. The Union should have just let the confederacy be. They would have abolished slavery peacefully eventually, just like almost everywhere else in the world, and without .6 million dead.
Where would the incentive lie to eventual, peaceful emancipation when you’ve just violently broken your sacred vows to your nation and broken away in order to form a would-be nation conceived upon and dedicated to the preservation of slavery?
The Union was letting the Confederacy be. There had been no hostile actions taken until the South fired on Sumter.
They would have abolished slavery peacefully eventually, just like almost everywhere else in the world, and without .6 million dead.
Probably true, which makes the Confederate initiation of the war to defend it that much more tragic.