“I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.” - Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861
It is not wrong to defend your home against invaders; and that entity which was founded through rebellion by slave owners like Washington and Jefferson as well as tolerated slavery in the slave states that remained in the Union (Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware) has no standing from which to judge the Confederacy. Nor does the president who assured the Northern public that freed slaves would be remigrated back to Africa.
This was a time when the United Sates was still referred to as these United States. It was understood as a political union of sovereign states. Many had never even left their home state in their lifetimes. None would have agreed to enter this union if they had known it was a death pact from which they could never leave.