The Civil War was a dark time for America, brother fought brother, and it is still the costliest war, in terms of lives lost, in American History. The secession of multiple states from the United States Union was caused due to disagreements over slavery. While the people and government viewed slavery as a sinful act and worked hard to ban it from America, farmers and people of the South depended on slaves for their financial income. Furthermore, as new territories arrived and states formed, tension increased between states that allowed slavery and states that did not. Abraham Lincoln was the President of the Union during the Civil War and ended the Civil War. Robert E. Lee fought on the Confederate side and was a general, however he did not agree with the reasoning or idea of ​​secession but remained true to his loyalty to his home state of Virginia. Lee's thoughts on the idea of ​​war are expressed in a letter he wrote to his son, and three years later, Lincoln's opinion on the war would be shared in his speech at the Gettysburg memorial service. Robert E. Lee was a rare general to encounter in the Confederacy, he did not want the union of the United States to occur. He believed that the form of a new government was ridiculous and cried for the sake of his country. Lincoln also cried for the United States, but only for the people who died for a true cause, and for the many more who will die for a good cause. Both Lincoln and Lee mention the Founding Fathers who helped build the nation that was collapsing around them in the Gettysburg Address and Letter to his Son, and mention how the country was testing the limits of the Constitution and how the Founding Fathers were ignored. .... middle of paper ... explained the way this country was built to succeed by its ancestors, and saw this war as a tremendous test for the good of this new country. At the Gettysburg Battle Memorial, Lincoln spoke for only four minutes; however, the speech has been remembered over the years as one of the greatest speeches ever given by the president. It wasn't all encouraging, or pushing towards the South, it was instead the truth of the war. Lincoln believed that the country's founders built it so they could demonstrate that large, powerful new countries could exist. The civil war was a tremendous test and the country had overcome it. Robert E. Lee saw the Civil War as something the fathers would never have dreamed of when drafting the Declaration of Independence, and he fought for the Union of our country, just as Jefferson, Madison, and Washington had done before his time..