During Lincoln’s time as president, he had to deal with the issue of southern states seceding from the union. He personally was anti-slavery, but prioritized the sanctity of the union over ending slavery. Lincoln ended up ending slavery and saving the union, but it cost him his life. Lincoln often describes himself as a naturally anti-slavery man, but decides to do what he feels is right for the union rather than his personal views. His personal viewpoints sometimes differed from his public viewpoints. Lincoln’s stances on the preservation of the union often influenced his position on slavery. Lincoln's principal objective was to keep the Union together no matter what. In the Lincoln-Douglas discusses in 1858, Lincoln broadly expressed "A house separated against itself cannot stand." (Document 1) He goes ahead to clarify how this legislature must be altogether one thing - either all servitude or all free. Lincoln trusts that division is the thing that will part the Union. This view is coming from an anti-popular sovereignty standpoint - Lincoln was negating Stephen Douglas' popular sovereignty views , where the general population have the privilege to choose by vote of their territorial legislature regardless …show more content…
Stating how he is naturally anti-slavery and cannot believe how some people do not believe slavery is not wrong. However, in Document 9 he admits that slavery is the cause of the war, hence his decision to end it. Lincoln later decided to end slavery more thoroughly than in the Emancipation Proclamation. Document 10 exhibits Lincoln fully ending legal slavery once and for all, putting an end to all of the non sense. Lincoln’s choice to end slavery was instrumental to America’s future success as a country. It also helped the north win the war, resulting in Lee surrendering. His decision to end slavery helped unify America. This decision unfortunately did however, have a major impact on his