18611776 Club
Four days after Bull Run, Congress votes: this war is to save the Union, not free the slaves
The House passes it 121 to 2, the Senate 30 to 5, an effort to keep Kentucky and Missouri from following the South.
The Union army had just been routed at Bull Run, and Washington itself suddenly felt exposed. Lincoln worried about Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland, slaveholding states that had not yet seceded and might still leave the Union if the war looked like an abolitionist crusade. On July 22, 1861, the House passed the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution, and the Senate passed it on July 25, 1861, declaring the fight was meant only to preserve the Union and the Constitution, with slavery in those states left untouched. The House approved the resolution's two branches by votes of 121–2 and 119–2, respectively. The Senate, 30 to 5…
