Read this quote carefully, and think about its main message. What is Lincoln expressing in this quote? Both sides were willing to destroy the nation by letting the war begin. The North started the war to stop slavery, and the South fought to keep slavery. The South would destroy the nation, but the North had to fight for the nation to survive. Both parties [disapproved of] war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came. –Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865