My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and it 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.
- President Abraham Lincoln, August 22, 1862, in response to Horace Greeleys editorial, A Prayer of Twenty Millions, which had called for immediate emancipation of slaves
Lincoln also opposed slavery on moral grounds.
Why did lincoln want to save the union? the south was a separate country, and He ordered troops onto a foreign land to invade and conquer, subjugate anothe4 population. all the while trampling on the Constitution. slavery or not, the war was an invasion of a foreigne land.