Title: American Civil War
Content:  Abolishing slavery was not a Union war goal from the outset, but it quickly became one. Lincoln's initial claims were that preserving the Union was the central goal of the war. In contrast, the South saw itself as fighting to preserve slavery. While not all Southerners saw themselves as fighting for slavery, most of the officers and over a third of the rank and file in Lee's army had close family ties to slavery. To Northerners, in contrast, the motivation was primarily to preserve the Union, not to abolish slavery. However, as the war dragged on it became clear that slavery 
Title: Reconstruction in Alabama
Content:  Differences over the acceptability of human slavery as well differences over various political matters in the United States eventually led to the American Civil War. An ethical and religious awakening caused many people in the North to campaign against slavery. Many believed enslaving people was Christian hypocrisy and thought it hindered the spread of Christianity. While northern Republicans fought for ideals including abolition, equality under the law, and democracy, southern Whites in the Confederacy fought to protect their way of life, as many of their economic and social systems were built upon the institution of slavery. The North, with better access to resources due to a 
Title: No Treason
Content:  The question of treason is distinct from that of slavery; and is the same that it would have been, if free States, instead of slave States, had seceded. On the part of the North, the war was carried on, not to liberate the slaves, but by a government that had always perverted and violated the Constitution, to keep the slaves in bondage; and was still willing to do so, if the slaveholders could thereby [be] induced to stay in the Union. The principle, on which the war was waged by the North, was simply this: That men may rightfully be compelled to submit to, and support, a government that they do not want; and that resistance, on their part, makes them traitors and criminals. Spooner's first pamphlet starts by questioning the reasons for the Civil War, as it was justified under 
Title: Racism against African Americans in the U.S. military
Content:  The Civil War was no doubt the pivotal moment in deciding the fate of African-Americans. A Union victory would mean a swift end to the institution of slavery. A victory for the Confederacy would continue the institution. From the beginning the war was motivated in the South to secede into a separate nation to preserve slavery, which was legal in and crucial to the economies of every Confederate state; in the North, the war was primarily to preserve the union of the United States of America which the Confederate States aimed to abandon, while also abolishing slavery everywhere in the union and preventing slavery's spread to new 
Title: Origins of the American Civil War
Content:  and cultural aims of the regions were diverging in other ways as well. More specifically, the North was rapidly modernizing in a manner threatening to the South. Historian McPherson explains: "When secessionists protested in 1861 that they were acting to preserve traditional rights and values, they were correct. They fought to preserve their constitutional liberties against the perceived Northern threat to overthrow them. The South's concept of republicanism had not changed in three-quarters of a century; the North's had. ... The ascension to power of the Republican Party, with its ideology of competitive, egalitarian free-labor capitalism, was a signal to the South that the Northern majority had turned irrevocably towards this frightening, revolutionary future." Harry L. Watson has 
Title: Racial equality
Content:  The bloodiest and most traumatic war in American history, the Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865. By 1860 one in three persons in the Southern States belonged to another. In a population of twelve million, four million were slaves. In September 1862 Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation, which avowed the aim of freeing the slaves in the Confederacy, and made abolition one of the North's central war aims. The North took the victory. Did the end of the war represent a gain or a loss for the country? The war represents a defeat for freedom simply to be let alone, for the beneficiaries of inherited wealth or those who prefer to live on the margins of society, but a victory for those, like the immigrants from Europe and the newly emancipated blacks, who needed government to provide the necessary conditions for the pursuit of happiness.
Title: American Civil War
Content:  were not inherently those of their faction; some Northern soldiers were even indifferent on the subject of slavery, but a general pattern can be established. Confederate soldiers fought the war primarily to protect a Southern society of which slavery was an integral part. From the anti-slavery perspective, the issue was primarily whether slavery was an anachronistic evil incompatible with republicanism. The strategy of the anti-slavery forces was containment—to stop the expansion of slavery and thereby put it on a path to ultimate extinction. The slaveholding interests in the South denounced this strategy as infringing upon their constitutional rights. Southern whites believed that the emancipation of slaves would destroy the South's economy, due to the large amount of capital 
Title: Northern United States
Content:   During the American Civil War, the Northern United States comprised the U.S. states that supported the United States of America (the Union states); in this context, "The North" is synonymous with "the Union," while "The South" refers to the states that seceded from the U.S. in order to form the Confederate States of America. There is, however, some historical disagreement as to exactly which states comprised "The North" in the context of the Civil War as five slave-holding states remained with the union: the Border states of Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, alongside the disputed Indian Territory; depending on the source, these states and territories may be included in either region.
Title: Union (American Civil War)
Content:   During the American Civil War, the Union, also known as the North, referred to the United States, governed by the U.S. federal government led by President Abraham Lincoln. It was opposed by the secessionist Confederate States of America (CSA), informally called "the Confederacy" or "the South". The Union is named after its declared goal of preserving the United States as a constitutional union. "Union" is used in the U.S. Constitution to refer to the founding formation of the people, and to the states in union. In the context of the Civil War, it has also often been used as a synonym for "the northern states loyal to the United States government;" in this meaning, the Union consisted of 
Title: History of the United States (1849–1865)
Content:  not secede; Kentucky tried, and failed, to remain neutral. Each side had its relative strengths and weaknesses. The North had a larger population and a far larger industrial base and transportation system. It would be a defensive war for the South and an offensive one for the North, and the South could count on its huge geography, and an unhealthy climate, to prevent an invasion. In order for the North to emerge victorious, it would have to conquer and occupy the Confederate States of America. The South, on the other hand, only had to keep the North at bay until the Northern public lost the will to fight. The Confederacy adopted a military strategy designed to hold their territory together, gain worldwide recognition, and inflict so 

Question: civil war what did the north fight for?
Answer: maintaining the republic.
loyalty to the U.S. Constitution.