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jeffersondem: "Lincoln actually added a slave state to the union.
I guess we can forever dismiss the notion that Lincoln 'fought to free the slaves.'
This, despite loud claims by some, that 'it was all about slavery.' "

Nonsense, of course Lincoln "fought to free the slaves", lawfully, which meant by Emancipation Proclamation in states in Rebellion, plus by 13th Amendment in loyal Union states.

As for West Virginia:

"On December 31, 1862 President Lincoln signed the West Virginia statehood bill on the condition that the new state provide some type of emancipation.
Waitman T. Willey, a Senator of Virginia under the aegis of the Restored Government in Wheeling, composed an emancipation amendment to the constitution to be ratified by public vote on March 26, 1863.
It became known as the Willey Amendment...

...The Willey Amendment was approved by public vote and on April 20, 1863.
President Lincoln issued a proclamation that West Virginia had met all requirements and would become a state on June 20, 1863.[78]
In anticipation of the passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution the Wheeling legislature passed a bill ending slavery in West Virginia on February 3, 1865."

Lincoln approved of gradual abolition as represented by that Willey amendment and Lincoln lived long enough to see full abolition in West Virginia.
That's because, following fellow Union slave-states Maryland & Missouri, West Virginia fully abolished slavery in early 1865, 11 months before ratification of the 13th amendment.

“Nonsense, of course Lincoln “fought to free the slaves”, lawfully . . . by 13th Amendment in loyal Union states.”

That is an interesting comment.

Can you explain your claim that Lincoln had to fight a war to add the 13th amendment in loyal Union states?

“On December 31, 1862 President Lincoln signed the West Virginia statehood bill on the condition that the new state provide some type of emancipation.”

I knew West Virginia was added to the Union as a slave state. Thank you for the confirming citation.

After the emancipation proclamation, the United States was the most powerful slave nation in North America, perhaps the world.