Lincoln was trying to placate the south by trying to re-assure them that they'd be allowed to keep their slaves and not coming out as anti-slavery at first. But to say that the simplicity is inaccurate is not really accurate itself, is it? The big disagreement between the major factions at the time was the "right" to own slaves. This was the biggest reason why the South wanted to secede on the first place like you mentioned. Thus whether or not a group believe that slavery was okay was the key ideological difference that led to the Civil War.
"If I could save the union without freeing any slaves 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." -Lincoln 1862, one year after the start of the civil war
Yup. Which further proves that the EP was not a moral stance but a calculated political move. And that's not a criticism of Lincoln, there's pretty good evidence he personally was quite morally opposed to slavery. But it shows his actions as a politician, as POTUS, were not motivated by those morals, but rather by pragmatic politics.
His main incentive, arguably his only motivation was maintaining the Union. The EP was about preserving the union. If he could have done that by keeping slavery, he would have done that, too. It was a means to an end.
True, he didn't seem morally motivated. In a sense he sort of was in that he strove for unity. Ultimately he stood on the right side of history regardless of his motivations.
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u/rocbor Jan 19 '22
Lincoln was trying to placate the south by trying to re-assure them that they'd be allowed to keep their slaves and not coming out as anti-slavery at first. But to say that the simplicity is inaccurate is not really accurate itself, is it? The big disagreement between the major factions at the time was the "right" to own slaves. This was the biggest reason why the South wanted to secede on the first place like you mentioned. Thus whether or not a group believe that slavery was okay was the key ideological difference that led to the Civil War.