I was chilled and shocked at the coldness towards the North which I everywhere met, and the sympathetic prejudices in favor of the South.

And yet everybody was alike condemning slavery and praising liberty!" How could England do this, how with the same breath blow cold and hot, how be against the North that was fighting the extension of slavery and yet be against slavery too?
Confusing at the time, it is clear to-day.
Imbedded in Lincoln's first inaugural address lies the clew: he said, "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery where it exists.

I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.

Those who elected me did so with full knowledge that I had made this and many similar declarations, and had never recanted them." Thus Lincoln, March 4, 1861.
Six weeks later, when we went-to war, we went, not "to interfere with the institution of slavery," but (again in Lincoln's words) "to preserve, protect, and defend" the Union.

This was our slogan, this our fight, this was repeated again and again by our soldiers and civilians, by our public men and our private citizens.