If the southern states wanted to secede, why didn’t Lincoln simply let them go? One could argue that they were making the same democratic decision that the British American colonies had made in 1776. One could also argue that secession was preferable to war. But Lincoln thought differently, and he was passionate in his belief. Why?

Professor Charles Hubbard, the Director of Lincoln Memorial University’s Abraham Lincoln Institute for the Study of Leadership and Public Policy, tells the fascinating tale.