Lincoln may have been a Republican, but he was also a Liberal and only rarely sided with anything that he didn't take a poll on.
Were these telephone polls or done on the internet?
If you want to know who Lincoln was and what he believed in, read his writings and one of the many biographies written about him. Lincoln had his advisors take polls by going out on the steeet and interviewing citizens. He also read the newspapers, both those that supported him and those against him. He was proud of his liberalism and declared that he was a liberal on many occasions.