From what I was taught in school and I am well past the half-century mark in age, meaning many years ago. I am from southern New England, CT.
The whole slavery issue if I am not mistaken, dogged even the founding fathers. I remember watching the musical “1776” and I do believe there was a song sung about the slave trade Thomas Jefferson wanting to put something in about freeing the slaves, but again I am dealing with a middle age brain here.
I was wondering if the founding wanted to end slavery then and there and not let it fester the way it did until it had to take a huge civil war to end it.
From what I have read, there are many different interpitations of Lincoln, FWIW.
Indeed there are however, with historians like Eric Foner who writes with a biased bent, the War of Northern Aggression will remain forever lying in a fog of uncertainty. Freeing slaves became a cause célèbre as a reason for that war as it droned on. Lincoln ended slavery but said, "those people must never be allowed to vote". Lincoln was anything but a saint; his abuse of the United States Constitution is legend.