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Considering seven states had already seceded before he even took the oath, and he was hoping to ease their fears and advert a war, and that four of those seven states had declared in their articles of secession that they had done so to preserve slavery, it would have been pretty foolhardy to propose an amendment to end slavery at that point.

It would have been impossible to do it at any point, and there should have been no fear of a war if Lincoln had chosen not to start one.

And of course, once again trot out your three little states that wrote about slavery being their primary cause, and ignore the other 8 that did not.

Virginia, the most notable and powerful of all the states at that time, clearly said they were seceding because Washington DC had become tyrannical and was abusing the power it had been given by calling for an invasion of the Southern states.

But you just keep forcing that history into the mold you are trying to create.

OIFVeteran: "...it would have been pretty foolhardy to propose an amendment to end slavery at that point."

DiogenesLamp: "It would have been impossible to do it at any point..."

In 1860 virtually every American understood that slavery was a pre-condition for Union -- without slavery there would have been no Union and any blatant attempt at nationally imposed abolition would end the United States as it was then known.

So Republicans in 1860 merely wanted to return to the conditions of, say, 1788, when Congress could outlaw slavery in US Northwest Territories and states could abolish slavery within their own borders.
Nobody then proposed abolition in the South.

But that's not what Southern Fire Eaters said in 1861.
They said Republican efforts to restrict slavery were existential threats to slavery and reason-enough to justify secession.

Once civil war began, then all bets were off regarding abolition in Confederate states.
Contraband of War, confiscation of rebel property, enlistment of runaway slaves and emancipation in Confederate regions -- all became possible in a war of rebellion.

Also, with 11 slave-states seceded and their white voters self-disenfranchising, passage of the 13th Amendment made national abolition a political possibility.

And so it was done.

So, secession began to protect slavery, Civil War ended with it's constitutional abolition.
It was indeed, "all about slavery".

DiogenesLamp: "And of course, once again trot out your three little states that wrote about slavery being their primary cause, and ignore the other 8 that did not. "

Here again is that summary of seven (7) Reasons for Secession documents issued before Fort Sumter:

December 1860, South Carolina's official Reasons for Secession" details slavery and no other reasons.
December 1860, South Carolina's Robert Barnwell Rhett writing to other slaveholding states includes four long paragraphs on slavery, three shorter paragraphs on taxes.
January 1861, Mississippi's official Reasons lists only slavery.
January 1861, Alabama's Ordinance of Secession lists only slavery as its reason.
January 1861, Georgia's official Reasons complains briefly about "bounties" for "fishing smacks" but devotes at least ten times more words to slavery.
February 1861, Texas official Reasons also complains briefly about Jefferson Davis & RE Lee's poor attempts to protect Texans against "Indian savages" and "murderous banditti", but spends many times more words on slavery.
March 1861, Georgia's Alexander Stephens famous "Corner Stone" speech:
"Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery -- subordination to the superior race -- is his natural and normal condition. [Applause.]
This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.
This truth has been slow in the process of its development..."

Florida & Louisiana gave no reasons for their secessions.

Summary: of seven (7) "Reasons for Secession" documents issued before Fort Sumter, all gave slavery as a major reason, three of them listed slavery as the only reason.