[BroJoeK]

jeffersondem: "Now the claim is being made that Lincoln, at some point, decided to use the war to end slavery because of moral and perhaps religious beliefs, not just military necessity as others have claimed.
If true - and there is evidence to support the claim - Lincoln was using the military to violently overthrow the pro-slavery U.S. constitution (with an eye toward tidying things up with a constitutional amendment after the war.)"

From Day One, the US Constitution protected slavery where it was lawful in Union states.
That could only be changed by constitutional amendment.

By contrast, states & regions in rebellion had no such protections and could have their "property" declared "contraband of war" for military reasons.
At least that was the theory reportedly given to young Lincoln during his brief time in Congress (1848) by old Founder John Quincy Adams.
And it's what Lincoln did after the Confederate declaration of war on the United States, May 6, 1861.

John Quincy Adams & Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln's faith

[jeffersondem]

“By contrast, states & regions in rebellion had no such protections and could have their “property”declared “contraband of war” for military reasons.

Prior to Lincoln’s War there were few that didn’t believe secession was permissible. Read what one revered expert taught:

“Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government and form a new one that suits them better. ... Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can may revolutionize and make their own of so much of the territory as they inhabit.”