Abraham Lincoln repeatedly stated his war was caused by taxes only, and not by slavery, at all.y
This crap again?
Lincoln never claimed it was his war- Lincoln
The Southern slave states seceded in order to protect their legal rights to own human property. This was embedded within the Constitution of the Confederacy- and indeed South Carolina's own secession statement:
http://www.teachingushistory.org/pdfs/ImmCausesTranscription.pdf
Those States have assume the right of
deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions; and have denied the rights of property established in fifteen of
the States and recognized by the Constitution; they havedenounced as sinful the institution of slavery;
they have permitted open establishment among them of societies, whose
avowed object is to disturb the peace and to eloign the
property of the citizens of other States.
They have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes;
and those who remain, have been incited by emissaries, books and pictures to servile insurrection.
Then they attacked American troops at Federal Fort Sumter- hence starting the war that resulted in the end of legal slavery in the United States.
Which was a tragedy- for so many reasons.
But the ending of slavery was not one of those tragedies.