It's even worse actually. He was a free soiler rather than a conservative abolitionist (by conservative abolitionist I mean pro-emancipation but anti-equality). Free soilers wanted to make it so that newly admitted (annexed from indigenous people) states were free, while allowing for the slave states to keep their slaves. This was supposed to be a magical centrist compromise that would prevent the Southerners from starting a civil war. It didn't work. Because the southern plantation aristocracy knew that if all the newly admitted states were free states, they would be outnumbered in the senate, and eventually abolition would come through legislation. So they raided federal armories, seceded from the union and attacked Fort Sumter. Then, when they lost the war, many of them fled to Brazil where slavery was still legal until the 1880s, which is why you have the bizarre "Confederado" subculture in Brazil.
Lincoln was also much too fond of the idea of using newly emancipated slaves as settler-colonists in Africa. This was carried out to a significant extent in Liberia.
Even when he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, it didn't apply to loyal slave states. So certain border states (Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, West Virginia) which remained loyal to the union despite being slave states, were exempt from Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Then you have the matter of picking Andrew Johnson, a racist southerner, as his VP for re-election. He still managed to have centrist brain even when he won the war. He did not hang the leaders of the confederacy. He instead picked a southern democrat and former slave owner as his VP for relection under a "National Unity" ticket, then promptly was assassinated. This left an anti-reconstruction bigot in the white house who pardoned the president of the confederacy in Christmas 1868.
Lincoln was always a :both-sides: douche. He didn't believe in slavery, but also didn't believe in full cultural equity for black people.
Yeah, my favorite response to idiots who say "Well, Republicans freed the slaves" is "Yeah but Lincoln was still a racist."
Usually leads to angry googling while I slink away.
It's even worse actually. He was a free soiler rather than a conservative abolitionist (by conservative abolitionist I mean pro-emancipation but anti-equality). Free soilers wanted to make it so that newly admitted (annexed from indigenous people) states were free, while allowing for the slave states to keep their slaves. This was supposed to be a magical centrist compromise that would prevent the Southerners from starting a civil war. It didn't work. Because the southern plantation aristocracy knew that if all the newly admitted states were free states, they would be outnumbered in the senate, and eventually abolition would come through legislation. So they raided federal armories, seceded from the union and attacked Fort Sumter. Then, when they lost the war, many of them fled to Brazil where slavery was still legal until the 1880s, which is why you have the bizarre "Confederado" subculture in Brazil.
Lincoln was also much too fond of the idea of using newly emancipated slaves as settler-colonists in Africa. This was carried out to a significant extent in Liberia.
Even when he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, it didn't apply to loyal slave states. So certain border states (Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, West Virginia) which remained loyal to the union despite being slave states, were exempt from Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Then you have the matter of picking Andrew Johnson, a racist southerner, as his VP for re-election. He still managed to have centrist brain even when he won the war. He did not hang the leaders of the confederacy. He instead picked a southern democrat and former slave owner as his VP for relection under a "National Unity" ticket, then promptly was assassinated. This left an anti-reconstruction bigot in the white house who pardoned the president of the confederacy in Christmas 1868.