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Originally Posted by Play4Keeps
From what I understand is that abraham lincoln was against slavery
Yes. The Republican Party was a broadly anti-slavery party. Most were not
abolitionists (there's a good argument to be had that Lincoln wasn't one until he signed the Emancipation Proclamation), but they were committed to halting the
expansion of slavery, which had encroached on areas previously considered off-limits through the 1850s through a variety of legislative (Compromise of 1850, Kansas-Nebraska Act) and judicial (Dred Scott) initiatives.
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and when he became president he was out to abolish it
No. Lincoln was not an abolitionist. Most abolitionists disliked him, and the most radical abolitionists disdained the political process in general.
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and also something to due with higher tariffs on the south.
Incorrect, but this misperception lives on due to the influence of neo-Confederate scholars. Tariffs were lower in 1860 than they had been previously. The tariff was not a major issue in the 1860 election. None of the secession documents list the tariff as a major reason for rebellion. The "tariffs too high!" rationale wasn't adopted until after the Civil War.
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And the south was fighting for their rights
...to own human beings. Yes.
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and funded by the rich slave owners who saw this as a threat to their economic interests. Feel free to add anything in here.
And entire social fabric, which was founded on white supremacy, and was instrumental in maintaining their hegemony over not just slaves, but free blacks and poor whites as well. And it was not just the existence of slavery, but its
expansion they demanded (into the Southwest, the Caribbean, etc).
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My question is: What were the soldiers in the north who were enlisting to fight the war told? Where they told that they were fighting to free slaves? equal rights ect?
Before late 1862, they would not have been told they were fighting to free the slaves. After the Emancipation Proclamation, the war turned explicitly against slavery, and enlistments actually went up, not least of which was due to the enrollment of free black soldiers. Prior to late 1862, the primary rationale for northern soldiers was the preservation of the Union and the Constitution, which the South had put under threat by seizing federal property and engaging in armed insurrection. That remained the official rationale of the Lincoln administration: putting down the insurrection of armed rebels, not an actual war against a foreign power (though they had to act, strategically, as though they were engaged in that type of war, of course).
Soldiers fought for all sorts of reasons, though. Personal ambition, the chance for adventure, the prospect of steady pay, peer pressure, ideological commitment, nationalism, etc. It's not as simple as boiling it down to the leaders' rationales.