Border States Key Decision By Jose Vasquez

Here a link about the Border States Role in Lincoln Decision on the war
http://history-world.org/border_states_in_the_civil_war.htm
http://www.sparknotes.com/history/american/civilwar/section5.rhtml (Section of the Border States and the Importance of the Border States)

Also Read the following pages

Chapter 20
Section Brothers' and Border Blood page 436-438
Chapter 21
Section A Proclamation without Emancipation page 458-460

Key point
* Affected the decision of Lincoln of making the Civil War at the start a "total war" in which the Union would be saved and slavery would come to an end.
* Force Martial Law and threatened to cut off Washington from the north.
* Affect how Lincoln dealt with his Emancipation Proclamation in which he allowed slavery in the Border States.
* Force Lincoln to be very careful in the way he acted about the issue of slavery in order to maintain the Border States.


Question
What effects would the Border States have had on the Union if they decided to seceed? How would Lincoln decision have changed from a war to save the union to a total war from the beginning? Were the Border States the differences between the Union defeating the Confederacy then The Confederacy defeating The Union? explain.