August 1861, the subject of slavery

"A General Wool* says, 'This war is an attempt to extend the area of slavery.'
Can that be, when not one-third of our volunteer army are slave-owners—and not one-third of that third who does not dislike slavery as much as Mrs Stowe or Greeley?** And few have found their hatred or love of it as remunerative an investment."

*War of 1812 veteran U.S. Brigadier General John Ellis Wool, quoted from a speech in New York, 15 August 1861.
**Harriet Beecher Stowe was author of the 1852 bestseller Uncle Tom's Cabin, Horace Greeley editor of the New York Tribune.