Lincoln was a politician and, by his very nature, often dwelt in vagueness in his promises. Regardless, he made it very clear to that audience that he did support protectionism and pledged that the issue was of top importance to him. His other letters at the time indicate a firm committment to tariffs and in fact a no time in his career is there an indication that ever took any position other than protectionism.
He admitted freely that he did not understand the specifics of the bill before Congress and that he promised to study the issues.
Just a babe in the political woods, right? Sure. And Lincoln also claimed that he had never seen the first 13th amendment, despite being the person who solicited Seward to intoduce the thing in the first place. Lincoln had been a protectionist politician for almost 30 years at the time he made that Pittsburgh speech. For him to play a simpleton and pretend not to understand its details is as dishonest as they come.
What is your source for that?
And are you claiming that the war was about tariffs? Do you really want to argue that one?
Duh! He made his protectionist principles very clear in the speech. Much of the country, even southern men, agreed with the protectionist idea in order to nurture young industry and keep the US independent of European manufactures. What he said in his Pittsburgh remarks is that he was not familiar with the bill then pending in Congress.
Why do you have such a compulsion to grossly distort every word the man said?