Dear Editor:
Abraham Lincoln understood full well the ambiguity of the Union cause at the outset of the Civil War and arguments future generations may make regarding the crux of the conflict. As a result, he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation.
After Jan. 1, 1863, any combatant on either side, slaveholder or not, literate or not, understood the Civil War was no longer only an endeavor to maintain the Union. It was a struggle of freedom.
The war may have begun with many intentions, but before its conclusion, the aim was unequivocal. When the United States was victorious, all persons previously held in bondage would be, "then, thenceforward and forever free."