[crakjak]

Pure nonsense!!!

Lincoln declared all slaves free with the Emancipation Proclamation!!

Still it has taken 150 years for slaves to be mostly free, because of cultural conditioning in both blacks and whites. No way it could have been instantaneously. There are still deep issues that has roots in slavery.
Lincoln wanted to save the union above all else.

Slavery was the great divide, because the North had industry and was very rich, while the South depended on slavery to survive. It was wrong but the South's economy depended on it, so naturally the South opposed any restrictions on the expansion of slavery into the territories. The North was dead set against slavery in any new states.
Lincoln had his hands full, desperate times require desperate actions from leaders, Lincoln succeed in saving the union. Had he not the nation would have likely crumbled, he did what he had to do, in the only ways he knew how.

It has already been said, that to judge him from today's perspective is very unfair, and dismissive of the times, and circumstances.

Slavery was a very thorny issue.

But God had seen the abuse of slaves and heard their cries, it was time for a change, but it was and is at an awesome price. Slavery was truly an abomination.