Question #86c54

1 Answer
May 9, 2017

The people who wanted to preserve the union. The federalists and the abolitionists.

Explanation:

Abraham Lincoln more than anything else wanted to preserve the union. The people of Maryland and Kentucky put the preservation of the union ahead of their status as slave states. These states lost a lot of their wealth and culture but they won because the union they believed in was preserved. Those who wanted the union of the United States to continue won the Civil War.

The federalist won the Civil War. One of the main issues determined by the Civil War was which was dominate the central federal government or States sovereignty. Before the Civil War both South Carolina and Massachusetts declared federal laws null and void that they disagreed with. During the Civil War most of the military units had more loyalty to their states than to federal or confederate governments. After the Civil War it was clear the Federal Government had predominance over the State's rights.

The abolitionists may have been the biggest winners. The abolitionist wanted the complete elimination of slavery. The Civil War was fought over the issue of Slavery. The South wanted slavery to be legal throughout the nation. During his elections campaign President Lincoln simply wanted to restrict slavery to the south and to pass laws that would restrict and maybe eventually phase out slavery. It wasn't until the Proclamation of Emancipation that the elimination of slavery became a goal of the Civil War. At the end of the Civil War Constitutional amendments were passed making slavery totally illegal everywhere.