Both Lincoln and Congress announced publicly that their purpose was not to disturb slavery but to "save the union," a union that they actually destroyed philosophically by destroying its voluntary nature, as established by the founders. All states, North and South, became wards or appendages of the central government in the post-1865 era.
Secession does not necessitate war; nor was war necessary to end slavery.
_ Dr. Thomas DiLorenzo
http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo206.html