“Lincoln was a hero even if he acted outside the constitution.”
How’s that? He never stepped outside the Constitution to free a single slave. In fact, contrary to popular belief due to public school system propaganda, Lincoln didn’t free the slaves, the 13th Amendment did.
Actually, Lincoln freed lots and lots of slaves.
As the Union armies crushed those of the CSA, all the slaves in areas controlled by the Union forces immediately became free. When the CSA finally caved in, all slaves in the country were free except those in DE (perhaps 100), NJ (possibly a dozen, the story is unclear) and KY (around 50,000). These were the only slaves freed directly by the 13th Amendment.
The other Union slave states (WV, MD and MO) had all freed their slaves by state action before the end of the war.
Now the 13th Amendment confirmed the end of slavery everywhere because it took away any chance of someone questioning the validity of the Emancipation Proclamation. But it directly freed only about 50,000 of the 4M existing at the start of the war. Lincoln freed at least 75% of the rest.