and yet that’s bullshit. Lincoln was as racist as anyone at the time.
And arguably less “racist” than nearly anyone from the south.
No, not even close. Look at the last sentence in his letter to Horace Greeley.
“I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free.”
Yours,
A. Lincoln
You can’t find any confederate leader who believed that. Most believed that slavery was actually a positive good.
Now did Lincoln believe that there should be political equality between the races? No. At least not at first. But few but the more radical abolitionist believed that.
If you look on it as a scale of moral right and wrong from 0 to 10. You would have the confederate leaders at the bottom or 0. They believed that blacks were ordained by God to be slaves. The radical abolitionist at the top of the scale believing all men were created equal and should have equal rights at a 10. Lincoln would probably fall somewhere at a 7 or 8.