Why did Abraham Lincoln want to abolish slavery?

Encyclopedia of Opinion

Question: Why did Abraham Lincoln want to abolish slavery?
Position‹2 of 2: For political power
Argument‹3 of 3: Emancipation was a military policy

Abraham Lincoln did not want to emancipate all Black people and slaves at once. Abraham Lincoln feared further Southern rebellion if slaves were unanimously freed and issued the Emancipation Proclamation in a military attempt to appease both the Northern abolitionist and Southern slave holders.

The argument

The Emancipation Proclamation was a military policy issued by the Abraham Lincoln administration to stall any further conflict during the already raging Civil War. Abraham Lincoln viewed emancipation as a gradual progress. The Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the Southern States because they had succeeded from the Union and were not under the law anymore. The Emancipation Proclamation was meant to weaken the Confederacy and shift public perception of the war. Its true purpose was not to end slavery or fight for Black Lives and equality. The Emancipation Proclamation was a military policy to assist the Northern Union in winning the war.

Premises

[P1]The Emancipation Proclamation was issued as a wartime measure that did not free enslaved people in the seceded Southern states, which were beyond the reach of Union law. [P2] Its aim was to weaken the Confederacy and shift public perception of the war rather than to end slavery or advance Black equality, and Lincoln himself treated emancipation as a gradual process. [C] Emancipation was a military policy, indicating Lincoln acted for political and strategic power rather than moral conviction alone.

Counter-arguments

The Emancipation Proclamation changed the tide of the war from an economic one to a moral one. The moral issue of slavery took front and center of the war and incited more enthusiasm and fervor for Union soldiers to fight and abolish slavery as a means of winning the war. In this way, the Emancipation Proclamation was much more than a military policy, but it changed the tide of the war and gave it a named purpose. The Emancipation Proclamation was also a major step in eradicating US slavery and racism.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The premise misstates what the Proclamation did: it applied precisely to the seceded states, exempting the loyal border states and Union-occupied areas, and it took effect as Union armies advanced — so rather than being a nullity in the South, it was the instrument by which large numbers of people were freed there. [Rejecting P2] That a measure served military ends does not establish it was only that, since the same order authorised Black enlistment and made abolition a declared war aim; and "gradual" describes a view of how emancipation should proceed, not evidence that political advantage rather than conviction was the motive.