But this was not all. The people who held slaves at the South wanted to add to the number. They hoped to get more of the new country west of the Mississippi River for slave states, so that there might always be at least as many slave states in the Union as there were free states. But Abraham Lincoln like most of the people at the North believed that slavery did no good to any one. He and his party were fully determined that no slaves whatever should be taken into the territories west of the Mississippi River, and that every new state which should be added should be entirely free.
For this reason it happened that when Lincoln became President most of the slave states resolved to leave the Union, and, if necessary, to make war rather than be compelled to stay in it.
16 Union: several years after the close of the Revolutionary War, by which we gained our independence of Great Britain, the people of the thirteen states formed a new government. That new government bound all the states together more strongly than before, thus making, as was then said, "a more perfect union."
In 1861 eleven of the southern states endeavored to withdraw from the Union; this attempt brought on the war.
[260. The North and the South in the war; President Lincoln frees the slaves; General Grant and General Lee; peace is made.]—The North had the most men and the most money to fight with, but the people of the South had the advantage of being able to stay at home and fight on their own ground.
| STATUE OF LINCOLN WRITING THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION WHICH GAVE THE SLAVES THEIR FREEDOM, IN FAIRMOUNT PARK, PHILADELPHIA. |
The war lasted four years (1861-1865). Many terrible battles were fought; thousands of brave men were killed on both sides. During the war President Lincoln gave the slaves their freedom in all the states which were fighting against the Union, and those in the other slave states got their freedom later. After a time General Grant obtained the command of all the armies of the North, and General Lee became the chief defender of the South.
| MONUMENT TO GENERAL GRANT IN LINCOLN PARK, CHICAGO. |
| MONUMENT TO GENERAL LEE, RICHMOND VIRGINIA. |
The last battles were fought around Richmond, Virginia, between these two great generals. When the Southern soldiers saw that it was useless to attempt to fight longer, they laid down their arms, and peace was made—a peace honorable to both sides.