The term that best summarizes Lincoln's position on
slavery is the term "free soil." Lincoln was a firm believer in this idea, which held
that slavery must not be extended to places where it did not already
exist.
Lincoln personally believed that slavery was wrong.
He did not believe in racial equality, but he believed that it was wrong to enslave
blacks nonetheless. However, he did not believe that the federal government had the
Constitutional right to abolish slavery where it already
existed.
For this reason, Lincoln held to the free soil
position. People who believed this said that slavery should be contained where it
already existed so that the new territories could remain free for settlement for small
white farmers.
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