Lincoln did not initially send his armies into the South to end slavery, but to end what he called a rebellion. It was only later, when things were going hard, and the North was questioning whether the bloodshed was worth saving the Union, that he picked up the public relation ploy of slavery. Since slavery was evil, it was ready made for his purposes. That had already been well prepared by the Abolitionists.
Read his first inaugural address. His cause for war was secession by the South, not the institution of slavery.
“Read his first inaugural address. His cause for war was secession by the South, not the institution of slavery.”
You’ll never get the liberal northern bigots to read that speech.