This proved prophetic with the collapse of the national party systems (the Whigs disappeared altogether) as North and South evolved into separate societies—one based on free labor, the other on ...

On November 6, 1860 Abraham ... address, delivered on March 4, 1861, Lincoln proclaimed that it was his duty to maintain the Union. He also declared that he had no intention of ending slavery ...

As early as 1849, Abraham ... did not free all slaves in the United States. Rather, it declared free only those slaves living in states not under Union control. William Seward, Lincoln's secretary ...

I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.” 37 —Abraham ... when Lincoln’s Secretary of State Henry Seward said that the war would not address slavery ...