Was Lincoln really pro-slavery, but later went anti for French and British suppo

Question: Was Lincoln really pro-slavery, but later went anti for French and British support!?
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A seemingly simple question that can result in a complex answer!.

Certainly there was a valid concern (by the Unionists) that European powers (namely Great Britain) would join the war by supporting the confederacy!. When President Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation several facts existed!.

First, it freed no slaves and you could make the case that President Lincoln didn’t have the Constitutional power to free slaves!.

Secondly, President Lincoln needed more troops for the army and the emancipation proclamation could be used as an emotion incentive to increase enlistments!.

Thirdly, it became a political image which made it nearly impossible for European nations to support the South because to do so would make it appear that they would (indirectly) be supporting slavery!.

All of that said, President Lincoln was a man of his times!. That included (for him) believing that the black race was not the equivalent of the white race!. That cannot reasonably be judged from the perspective of our times!. It would be difficult to make the case that such a view meant that he supported slavery, I believe that it was correct to say that he was ambivalent to whether blacks were slaves or not, at least at the start of the war!.

Certainly over time it became beneficial (to his cause) to increasingly work against slavery!. However, if slavery was the primary issue, then the Union would have let the South secede with no objection because slavery (as a problem) would have went with the South!.
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No, Lincoln's position on slavery was always one of opposition!. You're confusing his opposition to slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation!. The Emancipation Proclamation was issued largely to keep Britain and France from entering the war on the side of the Confederates!. While it's true that the proclamation didn't free any slaves because it only applied to states that were in rebellion and they ignored it what must be understood is that Lincoln didn't have the authority to abolish slavery since the Supreme Court had ruled it legal!.

A lot of people make the mistake of thinking because the Emancipation Proclamation was largely a political move that it means that Lincoln had no problems with slavery but he just used it to his advantage!. That thinking is completely false, Lincoln was always opposed to slavery but revisionist historians like to invent facts that have no basis in truth!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

He always opposed slavery, and he may have received some benefit from the institution through his marriage to a Todd!. I have never seen any evidence that he or Mary ever inherited any human beings from Robert Todd at the time of his death!.

The war began, from Lincoln's perspective, to restore the Union under the Constitution!. There were numerous members of his cabinet, Seward particularly, who were more anti-slavery than he was, but he had to have some justification, beyond a moral conviction, that would justify it!. He did hold such a moral conviction, but do divest southerners of the people they thought of as property, without compensation, was going to be a difficult sell south of the Ohio, and he knew it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

no he was against it the whole time!. but there are rumors that he held slavesWww@QuestionHome@Com