Which do you believe played the greater role in ending slavery in the United States; the moral argument or economic/business considerations?

The moral argument.

It’s a toss-up, as far as I can see.

It was the moral argument that spurred the anti-slave states to take the political actions that they did which precipitated the war, and their far superior economic might as “the Union” – because they were generally more industrialized, since they did not primarily depend on low-skilled agricultural workers – slaves – on plantations and were therefore able to project that economic advantage through all four years of the Civil War on “foreign soil”. Had they not had the overwhelming economic advantage they had, they never could have survived an expeditionary war of that duration and that length (especially given the awful leadership through much of its prosecution). Moreover, without the moral issue driving their continued participation, they may never have continued to accept such a price – in men and materiel – to the successful conclusion, but would have sued for peace and settled halfway through.

Yep. The North had the economic might as well as the population—the South had the military talent. So the war was a lesson on talent vs. money?

Don’t ignore the moral issue. The Union would never have pursued that war, as awful and destructive as it was, for as long as they did without the moral issue as a guide. I’m inclined to start agreeing with @marinelife that of the two points, it probably was the moral issue that drove the thing for the most part; the economic superiority simply enabled an ultimate victory.

Not an either/or; it’s both.

I would also throw in the lingering effect of the French Revolution and the various European uprisings in the 1830s-1840s; specifically the revolutions of 1848. Although the 1848 uprisings weren’t successful, by and large, they did show that there was a mass movement of the lower classes against the land-owning class.

You can draw a pretty straight line from Europe to the abolitionist movements in the US in the 1850s.

Slavery ended???
Maybe someone should tell that to the millions of people in your country working and still need Government help just to put food on the table.

@SQUEEKY2 Preach. Just legal slavery and no one cares.

850,000 dead.

@KNOWITALL One of the uncomfortable truths about the North during that era is that the clothing industry, which was made possible and profitable by slave-produced cotton, was exploiting low wages and sweatshop conditions for their workers…they weren’t slaves, but conditions weren’t that much better.

It’s always money. Everything else is just an excuse.