Nonsense. The war came because The Lincoln wouldn't have it any other way.
What about "his" amendment?
Lincoln bent over backwards to avoid war. What he wouldn't allow was the south to have their way in every jot and tittle. It was the south that determined on war.
Walt
It was political manuevering to frame the secession crisis in a way The Lincoln saw as favorable to his own cause. Eyewitness Henry Adams conceded as much.
If that is true, he should have been content with secession. Had he let the south go peacefully, he could have gotten everything that you allege he wanted - no slavery in the territories. When the south left, they left the territories behind. Lincoln could have left it at that kept them all for exactly what he wanted according to his speeches - land exclusively for "free white men" to remove to.
As usual, your argument, Walt, violates the obvious. If Lincoln's bedrock position was keeping the territories slave free, there was no better way to achieve that than to let the south voluntarily exclude itself from those very same territories. Secession did exactly that, yet The Lincoln would have none of it. It was the south that determined on war.