[mware]

As Shelby Foote would have said, “The Civil War made the United States an “is” instead of an “are”

[Samurai_Jack]

“As Shelby Foote would have said, “The Civil War made the United States an “is” instead of an “are””

That bears repeating for certain.
Time has not yet told whether that was a good thing or not.

[gbscott]

The Civil War began as a war to restore the Union. Lincoln did say that if he could restore the union and not free any slaves he would do it. He understood that if slavery was kept out of the territories it would eventually die. Many Southerners did as well. I believe that many writers of alternate history on this period are right. Slavery would have ended in an independent Confederacy.

The war evolved into a war to end slavery. But at least in the beginning there were a number of reasons for the conflict, among which was the slowly encroaching powers of the federal. BTW, the first secession threat came from the Northeast, not the South.

Was it a good thing that slavery ended? Absolutely. But would it have without the war? Probably.

And Shelby Foote is right. The Civil War broke the power of the states and transferred that power to the federal government, for better or worse.