Thinking a lot about the election of 1860 and how abolitionists did not like their options because nobody wanted to end slavery — Lincoln was constantly reassuring the South that nothing would change if he became president.

Maybe I'm taking "nobody wanted to end slavery" too literally, but the goal of the Republican Party and Lincoln at the time was to end slavery by cutting off slavery from expanding into any new territory at all and putting on the road to extinction as a first step.

My wife and I were talking about this last night! So many different forces moving to create a moment of crisis. So many choices at inflection points. So many convoluted steps that in retrospect can form a narrative but aren't obvious at the time. All we can do is each play our own part, I guess.