He got elected as a moderate, but it seems that this was just camouflage, and that he was actually a keen abolitionist.
a radical republican
One major area of disagreement between Abraham Lincoln and Radical Republicans is that Lincoln wanted to restore the United States by uniting North and South after the Civil War. Radical Republicans wanted to keep the South and North separate.
About the only thing that Lincoln, Johnson, and the Radical Republicans all agreed on was that the Civil War end expediently and the Union be preserved.
Lincoln proposed lenient terms for Reconstruction.
Radical Republicans
Abraham Lincoln then Andrew Johnson
Salmon P. Chase was a remarkable Treasury Secretary to Lincoln, and he was very instrumental in financing the Civil War. Chase was also a Radical Republican, and while he was in Lincoln's Cabinet, the Radicals in Congress were satisfied that Lincoln had a Radical in his Cabinet and criticised him less than they would have otherwise.
W. Lincoln Dyer has written: 'Rhymes of a radical' -- subject(s): Accessible book
Lincoln was a moderate-- certainly not a radical. He was not an abolitionist and he believed in the union and the Constitution. After the war began, he issued his Emancipation Proclamation which was pretty radical, but it only applied to the states that were in rebellion.
Lincoln supported the creation of a government agency to assist war refugees. NOVANET
Andrew Johnson. Abraham Lincoln's vice president.
one that provided for the basic war refugees