To free them was to violate their assets. However, to some, slaves were regarded as property by their owners and in the laws of the slave states. They believed strong measures were needed to achieve it. Many in the Union sought a more vigorous approach. The Napoleonic wars were an earlier example of the doctrine of “total war” Frémont in Missouri A limited force was to be used to reunite the ruptured nations. Union President Abraham Lincoln looked upon it as putting down a domestic insurrection. The Confederate President Jefferson Davis said, “all we ask is to be let alone.”
