Eventually, I believe they would have, as it was fast becoming an economic drag due to the increasing mechanization of agriculture, as well as being wrong morally.
An economic drag? How so? Mecanhanization was not that prevalent in the 1840’s and 50’s, certainly not with a combustion engine. Wages? Free men were paid a wage, not slaves. If the South would have ended slavery why did it go to war to preserve it?