"I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views." [Lincoln, Abraham, "Letter to Horace Greeley." Abraham Lincoln Online, 1858]
In fact, Lincoln was a white supremacist who was in favor of returning all blacks to Africa (as did Thomas Jefferson, and others):
"Colonization was hardly a fringe movement. 'Almost every respectable man,' as Frederick Douglass observed, supported it. Thomas Jefferson and Henry Clay, the statesmen most revered by Lincoln, favored colonization. Jefferson remained committed to the idea to his dying day. In 1824, he proposed that the federal government purchase and deport 'the increase of each year' (that is, children) so that the slave population would age and eventually disappear. Critics, Jefferson admitted, might object on humanitarian grounds to 'the separation of infants from their mothers.' But this, he insisted, would be 'straining at a gnat.'" [Eric Foner, "The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery." W. W. Norton & Company, 2011, Chap 1, Part II]
"From the American Revolution to about 1820, surprising numbers of slaves were liberated even in the United States South as well as North. Yet one of the truly distinctive features of North American slavery, except for that brief period, was the virtual lack of hope for any change in status. This closing of doors and escape hatches resulted partly from the spectacular long-term increase in the value of slaves, which reflected a growing demand and limited supply. The restrictions on manumission also reflected the mounting pressures of white racism—the conviction, shared by virtually every national leader from Jefferson to Lincoln, that whites and blacks could never permanently coexist as free and equal citizens." [David Brion Davis, "Challenging the Boundaries of Slavery." Harvard University Press, 2006, pp.30-31]
This is from a short article on the subject:
""Founded by the American Colonization Society, a group of men who believed that freed slaves had better chances closer to their roots, Liberia became a beacon for the freed slave. Presidents of the Colonization Society included James Madison and Henry Clay. 'There is a moral fitness in the idea,' said the latter, 'of returning Africa her children, whose ancestors have been torn from her by the ruthless hand of fraud and violence.'" [Shirley & Shirley, "Revisiting the founding of Liberia." Washington Times, Sept 27, 2018]
That said, the Gettysburg Address was a political strategy in the midst of an unfavorable war: nothing else. If it was about slavery, Lincoln, using his usurped dictatorial powers, would have freed the Northern slaves earlier that year with his "Emancipation Proclamation."
Mr. Kalamata
People can't envision Lincoln as a ruthless manipulator, but the more I learn of him, the more apparent it seems that he would accomplish what he wanted by hook or by crook.
He was a master at manipulating people, and this is why he was such a good lawyer as well.
As Lincoln's own Secretary of State remarked regarding the Emancipation Proclamation:
"We show our sympathy with slavery by emancipating slaves where we cannot reach them and holding them in bondage where we can set them free."
He points out the hypocrisy and illusion of moral purpose behind what Lincoln did.
Hon. Horace Greeley: Dear Sir.
I have just read yours of the 19th. addressed to myself through the New-York Tribune. If there be in it any statements, or assumptions of fact, which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here, argue against them. If there be perceptable in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be right.
As to the policy I "seem to be pursuing" as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt.
I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.
I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free.
Yours, A. Lincoln