Oh for some of the people, absolutely it did. I don't think I would say most people though.
I don't think I could say most either.
But only because, the technical reasons belie the truth at the heart of the matter.
Obviously, there were millions who didn't want to lose their slavery rights, but not all of them would have actually fought a war to protect those rights.
Millions of others wanted slavery abolished, but again, they wouldn't have fought in a bloody war to make it happen.
There were obviously many on both sides, willing to fight at the drop of a hat.
But, here is the thing.
I've already pointed out that slavery was the pink elephant sewn to the American flag.
But it was also the 400lb gorilla that Lincoln had to deal with, the moment he took office.
There was no bigger, or more pressing issue in America or the world than the slave rights debate, and it had become fiercely heated by the time Lincoln took office.
Why do you think
The Northern Permanent Slavery Amendment was endorsed by Lincoln and passed by Congress?
Do you think it could possibly be because the pro slavery activists were scrambling to amend the constitution so that it would clearly say "The People can have slaves
forever"?
Hell, just that the document had the word
"Permanent" in its title should be a clue as to how desperately people wanted to keep their slave rights.
Lincoln was of them. He despised the thought of making Americans give those rights up.
Now, this is where people are led astray.
What the southern historical doctrines don't teach, is this fact that the southern states feared their slave rights were going to be taken, and that they knew they were going to have to fight for them.
They had been worrying and planning for that fight for years, but especially in the year or so leading up to the war.
They knew it was coming, and in fact- they prepared remarkably well for it.
Why else do you think they already had an Army in place by the time the U.S. troops came to Sumter?
So, instead of fighting to protect their slavery, what did the south do?
They took the bait.
That 40% import tax that the Union devised to piss the south off, worked like a charm.
The south took the bait, and simply said, "Goodbye. We no longer belong to the U.S., so you can't make us do anything, and you can't come in to our new country either."
At this point, that was all Lincoln and millions of others needed to hear, for them to go to war.
Slavery may be tolerated by the Union, but leaving the Union would not be.
Secession is the technical reason for the war, as it was the technical detail that was needed for Lincoln to legally start killing southerners.
But that technical detail conceals the truth, as do the republicans.
Slavery Rights was paramount to the war.
It was at the very heart of the matter, from the very beginning and right up through the emancipation.