Lincoln's Attitude Towards War

"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection." This was the closing to President Lincoln's first inaugural address. He was telling the people of the United States that they will be together forever, and he will respect the country. However, once the war started and as it went on, his thinking change. Lincoln's attitude towards the war and his mindset about the end goal of the war changed as the war went on.
At the beginning of the war, Lincoln said that he would not do anything about slavery because he legally could not. In the first inaugural, he says, "I have no purpose directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States
In the beginning, Lincoln seemed to still think that the South was a part of the United States. But, although they were legally, they were not physically a part of the United States anymore. Because of this belief, Lincoln treated the South more kindly, giving them more opportunities. He didn't blame them for the start of the war because he didn’t want to cause more conflict. "A practical reacknowledgment of the national authority would render the war unnecessary, and it would at once cease." (Message to Congress Recommending Compensated Emancipation, 1862). This statement shows that Lincoln still thought that he had power over the South, and he didn't think the South really wanted to leave. So, he thought that offering them money to emancipate the slaves would lead them back to the United States. He was still giving the South a chance. However, towards the end of the war, Lincoln stated clearly that he believed that the war was the South's fault and that the South caused themselves the pain that they had to endure throughout the war. In his second inaugural address Lincoln says, "While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the
At the beginning of the war, he was focused on saving the Union, but towards the end of the war, his focus had shifted to slavery. He also had an attitude change that eventually led him to be more honest and forceful with the South than he had been at the beginning of the war. He was more honest in the way in which he told them how he felt about the war and what, in his opinion, they had caused towards the end of the