This is just anecdotal, but I have a letter written to my great great great grandpa from his brother Eduard, who was in the Union army. The letter is written in German, but from reading the English translation it appears the chief concern of Eduard is defending freedom and nothing else. He was killed in action in 1862. He was born in Switzerland and had emigrated to the US barely 10 years earlier.
I meant over 100 years after the founding. Which agrees with your timeline of the DotC.
Sorry. I misunderstood what you were saying.
To prevent secession. Which is a worthwhile reason to fight a war.
What was the SOUTH fighting for?! Not, to be sure, for “states’ rights” – Southern states started announcing their secession as soon a Lincoln was elected – before he had done anything to threaten their internal autonomy – before he even took office. And, Lincoln was not really an abolitionist – if the Southern states had not seceded, he would have done nothing to threaten their peculiar institution – at most, he would have vetoed the admission of any new slave states to the Union. But the Southern gentry didn’t care. They simply did not want to remain in the Union under a president whose party included an abolitionist wing.
I have noodled over the reason for the Civil War for quite some time. I have come to the conclusion that Lincoln’s goal was exactly what he said it was, to reestablish the Union.
Why didn’t he free the slaves sooner? Because that was not his goal. Why did he plan to allow the local strongmen to reassert control in the South? Because reform was not his goal.
What did he mean by “Government of the people for the people by the people?” Surely that is what the Confederates wanted. The answer is right there in the Gettysburg Address, the issue was if a popular government could have the strength to hold together in tough times.
I think this is a case of the answer being in plain sight.
Yes, but he also wanted to stop the spread of slavery to new states, and the war accomplished this pretty well.
He might have had the Fugitive Slave act repealed, but nothing to outlaw slavery.
In his First Inaugural he promised to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act. He would have been quite happy if the Congress prohibited the spread of slavery into the territories. But, as President his stated goal was to save the Union. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Apologies for my lack of knowledge of the subject.
I think that the best way to work out what the North was fighting for is to try to work out that which persons were thinking and not necessarily what they said or documented.
A clue is in the way you have phrased the question:
“the North” is a geographical expression rather than, say, a political one or cultural one.
I think the best way is to try to think that which the Afro-American soldiers in The Union Army thought that their white counterparts thought they were fighting for back in the 1860s.
I think that the Afro-American soldiers in The Union Army would think that the main driver for armed conflict was the prevention of the loss of territory. That is, the politicians, rulers, law makers, Generals, persons in positions of power and authority would overridingly be concerned about the potential threat of the loss of territory.
I therefore think that if it had to come down to one thing that “the North” was fighting for it would be loss of territory. I think this is the salient driver of the armed conflict.
I think your thoughts are incorrect. 
I’d go with what most pro-Union folks said and did at the time, in order to prevent the country from breaking up.
It comes down to the same thing.
Well, sure, Lincoln wanted this. He was president of the damn place! 
But what about a lot of the everyday people who joined up, who weren’t part of the moneyed interests or the upper class? Even though there was more upward mobility in the U.S. at that time than say a hundred years ago back in Europe, succeeding in the military while essentially starting out from the bottom was still a very good way to gain admission into the “upper ranks” of society, was it not? Now, I have no doubt that a lot of men joined up mainly because they did want to preserve the union, but I’ve always been a bit skeptical that the majority of them did it for that reason. And just to be clear: I know next to nothing about this, so the above is exactly what it seems to be. Just some random thoughts.
Military was good work if you could get it, later in the war men fought because otherwise they would go to jail
However, the question was what “the North” was fighting for, not what motivated individuals caught up in the war.
Well if you were in the North you joined up or were drafted.
Okay, but the “North” wasn’t a monolith. Do you not have to consider all motivations?
Okay, so I’m asking then, why did most people join?
Didn’t the Confederacy also have a draft? I recall reading a humorous song about “The Brave Draftee.”
And a lovely period song, “They Have Grafted Him Into The Army.” Adore that’n!
In other words - the North was fighting for States Rights. They didn’t want to abide by the fugitive slave law, they didn’t like the Dred Scott decision which was an infrigement on a states right not to allow slavery within its borders
