The union of the thirteen colonies was declared through its unanimous Declaration of Independence in 1776. That Declaration of Independence stated these immortal words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.…" At the time that those words were written in conjunction with the sacred honor of those so signing this Declaration, slavery was a legal institution throughout America. Yet, those in slavery were quite obviously denied their unalienable rights, of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Additionally, legitimate governments are instituted amongst mankind, deriving their just powers form the consent of those so governed; of which, any part of the people that are precluded from providing their voluntary consent to that government, and further are precluded from enjoying the fair fruits of their labor, and are precluded from the power of the vote, and of legitimate protest, as well as being precluded from all the reasonable means of self-sufficiency, have unfairly had wrested away from them, their freedom and their liberty.
This great Civil War fought between those that setup a counterfeit government, built upon the corrupt foundation, that some men had the inborn right to enslave some other men, was opposed by that national government, that recognized the self-evident truth that all men are created equal, and that therefore that government, of the people, by the people, and for the people had a hallowed obligation to defend, to uphold, and to propagate that very proposition for all the citizens of this nation, in order for that nation, to become the beacon of liberty, freedom, and fair opportunity for all.
The very purpose of the United States being and becoming the United States, was to see that each of the tenets of that Declaration of Independence, which was the raison d'être for that righteousness revolution became fulfilled in that government so created, by the consent and by the will of those so governed. This country, which speaks so often of being a country blessed by God, needed that Civil War, in order to demonstrate in living principle that the United States of America, was a nation indeed, united under God, with the spiritual principles that God so represents, of justice, liberty, and fairness for all and unfairness, injustice, and enslavement for none.
Further to the most important point, there is little to be commended for the Northern side to have won the war, on behalf of all the peoples of this great nation, if in effect, this country does not live up to its Declaration of Independence. That is to say, the devotion of all those that gave their last dying breath to that Union of States, as well as to all those that were integral parts of the bravery and resolve of the cause to re-unite the States, must therefore, in order for their blood and their ideals to not have been borne in vain, see that this United States becomes that beacon of light of what it was founded upon; which is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, brought forth to all peoples -- rightly seen as equally available, in order to form a more perfect union of those people, for the betterment of those people, by those people, and for the world, at large.