Too many of us have been spoon fed the false legend that Lincoln was a god-fearing conservative. Well maybe he was god-fearing?
Conservative however - hardly....
He was not even god-fearing. He was in fact an Atheist in his early days. Although he may have acquired some respect for Christianity in his later life, there is sufficient evidence out there to indicate he eschewed it during his younger years.
https://www.history.com/news/abraham-lincoln-religion-christian-atheist
If conservative means holding up the founders original intent then he(and the republican party)was conservative. Most founding fathers thought they had put slavery onto the path of extinction. They wanted to see slavery ended.
“It being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted, by which slavery in this country may be abolished by law.” - George Washington Letter to John Mercer, September 9, 1786
“I wish from my soul that the legislature of this State could see a policy of a gradual Abolition of Slavery.”
- George Washington: letter to Lawrence Lewis, August 4, 1797
“Every measure of prudence, therefore, ought to be assumed for the eventual total extirpation of slavery from the United States.... I have, throughout my whole life, held the practice of slavery in... abhorrence.”
John Adams: letter to Evans, June 8, 1819
“It is much to be wished that slavery may be abolished. The honor of the States, as we as justice and humanity, in my opinion loudly call upon them to emancipate these unhappy people. To contend for our own liberty, and to deny that blessing to others, involves an inconsistency not to be excused.”
-John Jay: to R. Lushington - March 15, 1786
“Would any one believe that I am master of slaves by my own purchase? I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living without them. I will not — I cannot justify it, however culpable my conduct. I will so far pay my devoir to Virtue, as to own the excellence and rectitude of her precepts, and to lament my want of conformity to them. I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be afforded to abolish this lamentable evil. Everything we cam do, is to improve it, if It happens in our day; if not, let us transmit to our descendants, together with our slaves, a pity for their unhappy lot, and an abhorrence of Slavery. If we cannot reduce this wished-for reformation to practice, let us treat the unhappy victims with lenity. It is the furthest advancement we can make toward justice. It is a debt we owe to the purity of our religion, to show that it is at variance with that law which warrants Slavery.”
-Patrick Henry letter to John Alsop Jan13, 1773
From the Republican Party Platform of 1860.
7.That the new dogma that the Constitution, of its own force, carries slavery into any or all of the territories of the United States, is a dangerous political heresy, at variance with the explicit provisions of that instrument itself, with contemporaneous exposition, and with legislative and judicial precedent; is revolutionary in its tendency, and subversive of the peace and harmony of the country.
8.That the normal condition of all the territory of the United States is that of freedom: That, as our Republican fathers, when they had abolished slavery in all our national territory, ordained that “no persons should be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law,” it becomes our duty, by legislation, whenever such legislation is necessary, to maintain this provision of the Constitution against all attempts to violate it; and we deny the authority of Congress, of a territorial legislature, or of any individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any territory of the United States.
The Republican party then, as now, was the conservative party.