So my professor told me Democracies never go to war in class a few days ago

[makingmusic476]

Actually, slavery was the chief issue preventing Britain from joining in the war on the side of the South.

Britain had various reasons to join the fighting on the side of the South, from weakening American power in the Atlantic, to the fear of a belligerent North under Lincoln and how that might impact their American colonies, to protecting their interests in Southern cotton, not to mention the British felt they shared a cultural bond with the South (Plantation owners were seen as nobles of sorts, and the British felt Southerners had a certain "class" that Northerners had long since lost - read Sir Arthur Fremantle's writings on the war). However, given Britain's opposition to the practice of slavery, they were wary of actually fighting alongside the Confederates, something Lincoln knew all to well.

The British were on the verge of joining the South after the Union navy boarded British ships, demanding they hand over Southern Emissaries on their way to England, but Lincoln's late declaration of the war to be a crusade against Slavery through the Emancipation Proclamation put any plans for the English to aid the Confederates on hold. It was a brilliant move on Lincoln's part. The Proclamation did little but prevent the English from joining the fight. The Proclamation claimed that all slaves held in any rebellious states were henceforth free. Obviously Lincoln had no control over these states, and thus could not enforce the ruling, meanwhile the slaves held in states under Union control (Delaware, Maryland, Missouri) remained enslaved for another two and a half years until the 13th Amendment.

It was a genius piece of fluff writing, worthy of the politicians of today.

On a somewhat related note, here's a funny story: when the war first broke out, England sent 8,000 troops to the Canadian border, fearing an invasion from the North. 8,000 may have been a daunting figure up to that time, but the first real battle of the Civil War involved over 70,000 soldiers!