Slave Power

 

Well lets see in the preceeding 60 years, the US had avoided banning the slave trade until Perfidious Albion insisted, had a situation where slave states were able to count above their weight because of the 3-5ths rule (for legislative seats purposes, a state had its population and 3/5ths of "other persons" counted), the US went to war with Mexico partly since slaveholding states wanted more land, then passed a fugative slave law, twice, then went against anti-slavers in"bleeding Kansas" and then in John Browns incident, then for the first two years of war did everything it could to appease the slaveholders who remained loyal, until they were dragged kicking and screaming into emancipation.

 

So yes slavers were very influential.

 

The slavery issue divided North and South true, but it was a lot more complicated than that. Many slaveholders remained loyal, indeed Gen Grant had owned a slave for a time before the war, his wife owned four throughout the war and after (till 1866 when it was outlawed). So had Mrs Lincoln.