While Lincoln's personal dislike of slavery is well-known, the only related position he ever advocated strongly and consistently was the prevention of slavery's spread into the territories, "where it does not already exist." He steadfastly refused to take up the call of the abolitionists, since the majority of Northerners were not sympathetic to it. And, as I've pointed out, his Emancipation Proclamation only called for the freedom of slaves living in the states that continued to rebel -- not the slaves in the border states or in northern states like Delaware and not the slaves in secessionist states that laid down their arms.
There is indeed. Perhaps we should post the quote in context?
Executive Mansion,
Washington, August 22, 1862.
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 [sic] 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 everywhere could be free.
Yours,
A. Lincoln.
While Lincoln's personal dislike of slavery is well-known, the only related position he ever advocated strongly and consistently was the prevention of slavery's spread into the territories, "where it does not already exist."
Which is all that he believed the government could do absent a constitutional amendment. It would be highly presumptuous of him to advocate something that wasn't constitutional.
And, as I've pointed out, his Emancipation Proclamation only called for the freedom of slaves living in the states that continued to rebel -- not the slaves in the border states or in northern states like Delaware and not the slaves in secessionist states that laid down their arms.
The Emancipation Proclamation was a war measure issued as a tool for combating the rebellion. Since Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri were not part of the rebellion to begin with, and since Tennessee and parts of Virginia and Louisiana had been returned to federal control, the Emancipation Proclamation could not legally apply to them. It took the 13th Amendment to end slavery, and Lincoln's support for that is well documented.