[SydneyK]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Of course, there certainly were abolitionists for whom it was moral issue.

True, which is why I included the ETA:

Originally Posted by SydneyK

There were plenty of northerners who wanted to abolish slavery for non-moral reasons, just as there were plenty of southerners who wanted to abolish slavery for moral reasons.

I should have clarified that the opposite of each is also true.

Originally Posted by MysticCat

There certainly are major factors such as slavery, which as you say may be the predominant factor. But it's a mistake to reduce it to "The Civil War was about x," even if that x is a major factor There were lots of inter-related things going on -- racial factors, class factors, economic factors, religious factors, philosophical factors, governmental factors . . . . The reason one person supported one side or the other may have been quite different from his neighbors reasons.

Absolutely. I never meant to suggest the Civil War was about only slavery. In fact, had I not already been quoted as saying "(if not the major factor)" I would've deleted that just to avoid being thought of as thinking the war was only about slavery. I think that the other factors you listed (racial, class, economic, religious, philosophical, governmental) all have either direct or indirect connections to slavery, but I don't maintain that the Civil War was The War on Slavery.