I've thought many things about 'Honest' Abe, but never that he was a conservative. I don't consider him all that much of a Statesman either; he got pretty d*mn near a million Americans killed in a war that a Statesman probably could have avoided.
Slavery is the antithesis of liberty; hence, an entire segment of the population had its Rights subrogated by another segment of the population.
When a state willfully suppresses the inherent, inalienable God-given Rights of an entire segment of its population, in such a vile and inhumane manner, it ceases to be just.
The Government *should* exists to preserve the free exercise of our Rights; ergo, individual Rights *should* supercede the wishes of the State.
In other words, Lincoln was right and embracing a Conservative tradition (i.e., recognizing the true origin of rights).
Folks can banter all they want about state's rights versus the power of the federal government, but they cannot claim that the state had the "Right" to deny Rights to a particular group of people (without just cause or as a result of punitive measures for criminal activity), without placing into peril their own claim of inalienable Rights.