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Lincoln didn’t believe blacks should have the same rights as whites.

Though Lincoln argued that the founding fathers’ phrase “All men are created equal” applied to blacks and whites alike, this did not mean he thought they should have the same social and political rights. His views became clear during an 1858 series of debates with his opponent in the Illinois race for U.S. Senate, Stephen Douglas, who had accused him of supporting “negro equality.” In their fourth debate, at Charleston, Illinois, on September 18, 1858, Lincoln made his position clear. “I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races,” he began, going on to say that he opposed blacks having the right to vote, to serve on juries, to hold office and to intermarry with whites. What he did believe was that, like all men, blacks had the right to improve their condition in society and to enjoy the fruits of their labor. In this way they were equal to white men, and for this reason slavery was inherently unjust.

The only use the Union army had for blacks, they were told then, was as cooks and cleaners. In time, they would need blacks to save the Union from the Confederacy.

Fact two: It was not Abraham Lincoln who first pressed the US Congress to pass an amendment to the US Constitution outlawing slavery and involuntary servitude. It was abolitionists like the former slave Frederick Douglass and white feminists like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, who fought both for freedom for blacks and, as leaders of the women’s suffrage movement, fought for the right to vote for white women.

While Lincoln dithered and prevaricated, Stanton and Anthony sent women onto the streets of America to gather names for a petition to present to the Congress that would show that Americans wanted an amendment included in the Constitution ending slavery.

Lincoln on Slavery

slaveryAbraham Lincoln is often referred to as "The Great Emancipator" and yet, he did not  publicly call for emancipation throughout his entire life. Lincoln began his public career by claiming that he was "antislavery" -- against slavery's expansion, but not calling for immediate emancipation.

The North fought the war to stop them from seceding... not specifically to stop slavery.

How one blurs that distinction is in the eye of beholder.