I will add that my public school education taught me the same talking points you just used. I used to argue with people just as you are doing. Then I read more of Lincoln's writings and historians critical of state power. I trust that you are in the same boat I was in many years ago. Propagandized by the government schools and pop culture.

Clearly slavery is evil. The war was fought to maintain the union. The south wanted to keep slavery and the north had more power/wealth. The south wanted to leave the union (which it had the right to do). Lincoln would not allow them to leave so they fought a war. Saying the war was fought over slavery is both reductive and wrong. It was a key factor but not the goal of the north.

But that's not what I'm referring to. I'm referring to the actions of the state against citizens during that time. State power greatly expanded. Not only against the south but against citizens of the north that both opposed slavery and the war(Copperheads). There really wasn't a good guy in the war between the states. Like today, the north used a moral cause to justify its incredible bloodshed. The US is the only nation to end slavery by war. There were many other options besides war. Slavery is one of the greatest evils man perpetrates but that war didn't end it. Not in the US or anywhere. I'm grateful that the southern slaves were freed but I will not lionize Lincoln or the war.

A case could be made that the US was never free. I'm open to that. After all slavery existed. Additionally you can point to many other actions of the state that demonstrated this.