Why didn't Congress abolish slavery

Why

didn't Congress abolish slavery

I have often asked

if the [Civil] War was about slavery, then why didn't the

U.S. Congress simply outlaw it in 1861 when all of the

Southern legislators left for their home states? Why

didn't they outlaw it in 1862? 1863? 1864? 1865?

Why did they wait until

1866 to finally succumb to public outcry to outlaw

slavery? (And why did General Grant wait until then to

free his own personal slaves?)

Slavery was an American

problem, not just a Southern problem.

It was bad enough that the

North was willing to kill every Southerner if that was

what it took to keep them from being free from Northern

domination; and Sherman tried to prove it; but to have

Yankees move among us to live and enjoy our hospitality

and environment and then attack the very core of our

heritage and history is very demeaning and hard to

understand or forgive.

Gene Harrison

Fayetteville