Hi George,

You wrote:

"I don't buy the war measure argument since it only freed the slaves in the CSA."

Right, that's where the rebellion was going on. It was a war-measure designed to crush the rebellion.

You wrote:

"Even so Lincoln had the EP drawn up, either he was lying to the South or the North, one or the other but he was lying."

Where does the lying charge come in? Lincoln's "Greeley letter" walks the public through his thought-process. "What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union," Lincoln wrote. I take him at his word because his actions do not contradict his statement.

You wrote:

"Do I understand you correctly that slavery had nothing to do with Lincoln starting an illegal war?"

No. First, Lincoln did not "start" the war. The Confederacy opened fire in Charleston Harbor, ushering in Civil War. Jefferson Davis liked to say Lincoln "made us do it," I suspect you agree with that interpretation. You are free to do so.

Second, I believe slavery played a very large role in the American Civil War. That conclusion is based on evidence. First, the Vice President of the Confederacy said as much in his "Cornerstone Speech," just as the various "Declarations of Causes of Seceding States" said as much. Lincoln also believed slavery was at the root of the American Civil War, he devotes the entire third paragraph of his Second Inaugural to it:

http://www.lincolnstudies.com/documents/03041865.html

Best,
Sam.