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In all my reading, and all my lectures, I have come across hundreds of references to our Civil War being fought over every issue besides slavery. I think it myopic to assume that the Civil War (as prophesized by our founding fathers) was fought for any other reason. Every reference to states rights, and sovereignty can be traced directly to the question of slavery. To assume that Americans would kill each other in such numbers for anything besides a vast and irreconcilable difference of morality is both insulting, and ignorant.
To be sure, those supporting the institution of slavery used every possible avenue of distraction. Every conceivable issue was put forth as an excuse for secession. All of these put together do not even begin to equal the economic, social, and moral impacts of abolishing slavery. The South enjoyed all the benefits and riches that come from a parasitic relationship, and the war was, most assuredly, fought to end that relationship.
I think it very superficial to deduce what was in the mind of Lincoln by highlighting certain speeches and legislation. The poor man was walking the most perilous tightrope in American history, and as a unionist, he would sacrifice himself, his beliefs, his morals, and his brothers and sisters to protect it. This is often taken out of context, and used to belittle his abolitionist heart.
It is only in his personal letters and correspondence that his true feelings can be considered. What he did for the country has not always consistent with what he would have done personally if he were a king, and not a president. He made consissions to the South to save the Union only.
I don’t believe in sound byte argument, but I’ll break that rule in this instance, as this President’s words have just as much meaning and relevance today, as the day he spoke them.

"Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it." - Letter To Henry L. Pierce and Others (April 6, 1859)

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy." - (August 1, 1858?)

"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it." Lincoln's Cooper Institute Address, February 27, 1860.

"I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal." - Speech at Chicago, Illinois" (July 10, 1858)

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause." - Letter to Horace Greeley (August 22, 1862)

"In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just - a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless." Lincoln's Second Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862.
"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed."

"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed." - "Lincoln-Douglas debate at Ottawa" (August 21, 1858)

"Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally." - Speech to One Hundred Fortieth Indiana Regiment (March 17, 1865)

"I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except Negroes." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except Negroes and foreigners and Catholics." When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty - to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure and without the base alloy of hypocrisy." - Letter to Joshua F. Speed (August 24, 1855)

"Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." 3
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. - Second Inaugural AddressSaturday, March 4, 1865

I think the professor is a revisionist, and has an agenda. There is only one history, and only one reality. Lincoln was a politician. He made compromises and betrayed his own feelings as such, but make no mistake, the Civil War was fought over slavery. Everything else was background noise. The Lincoln / Douglas debates were an exercise in oration, and Lincoln often played devil’s advocate. One must consider his entire life to get a realistic appreciation of this great man.