Abe was a pragmatist about the matter; Republican attempts to get slavery banned had failed. (Those wascally Democrats.)
Whether slaves were the immediate cause in the mind of the South for rebelling, they were a moral albatross around the South’s neck. They doomed the South to failure because God refused to smile upon that. The reconstructed South was morally stronger than before, because it had been forced to give up its slaves.
Yes you’re right, on the history and thank you for a well-stated respectful post. I don’t mean to be so... strident or appear intemperate to folks of the South today, they’re not my enemy. I’m an American, I love our country and consider my fellow Americans from any point of the compass to be my equal and my brethren(libs, well, less so but I know God made them too) and I would NEVER want to see a repeat of 1861. I firmly believe God made this great land of ours the New Jerusalem, a New Eden of freedom and liberty and I’d never want it be dissolved again.