No Sessession in 186-1

No Sessession in 1860-1

WI the Southern leadership had not seceeded following Lincoln's election or maybe had returned to the Union after a referendum in Virginia shows a clear majority against leaving the US.

I fear the outcome would be that slavery would last much longer,

Lincoln did not like slavery but felt (almost certainly correctly) that in normal circumstances the then US Constitution he could do nothing about it in existing states.
 
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Lincoln did state that if he could reunite the Union without freeing one slave, he would do it. Not as nice a guy as you think...but still AWESOME!!!
 
Lincoln went almost out of his way to assure the South that he personally was not a threat to Slavery where it existed and he believed that the blacks were inferior to whites, couldn't be equal to whites and that the Government of the United States did not have the power to effect slavery where it existed under normal circumstances but he did object to the spread of slavery to new territories, he believed it to be morally wrong to allow such a thing to happen.

He tried to appear so totally passive towards the institution of Slavery where it already existed that he would come across as accepting it even if he did not like it.

His problem was that the Deep-South had made up its mind that unless their candidate won they would leave the Union. Breckenridge had to win the election or the Deep-South was out of there.

Another problem Lincoln had was that the whole country, North and South, had resolved, one way or another, to stop debating their points and wanted to either be done with each other and go their seperate ways or to fight it out.

He had an unwinable situation and ended up chosing the path that lead to war but also lead to him being remembered as the man who saved the Union instead of the man who let it break apart.
 
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