Then, of course, the question was can a country “conceived in liberty’, in Lincoln’s words, tolerate slavery.
Clearly he is mixing up things up, the reason for the war was states rights, slavery was the occasion not the cause. The Revolutionary war wasn't about tea and taxes.
Lincoln rejected submitting slavery to the vote, arguing that there are first and inviolable principles of right and wrong on which this nation stands and which cannot be separated from any issue, including considerations of growth and expansion.
More reconstructed history: Lincoln opposed slavery in the territories because he thought the new territories need to be all white. Lincoln was a racist to the nth degree.
The author is a she...