What were Abraham Lincoln's political views?

Answer 1

Lincoln was one of those presidents that flip-flopped on their ideas. Originally, when he was running for president, he ran as a supporter of no more slavery in the Western Territory. He was NOT an abolitionist. However, during the Civil War, he chose to make the Emancipation Proclamation, which outlawed slavery in the Confederacy, not in the Union. He had only done this, though, because he wanted to change the war to one of morality. He did this Britain was debating as to whether or not it wanted to help the Confederacy, who produced much of the cotton Britain used. But when the issue of slavery was made public, they quickly withdrew themselves because Britain had already outlawed now scorned slavery.

In addition, one of the reasons why he was so popular was because he was very lenient. Unlike many of the vengeful Republican congressmen, who wanted to punish the Democratic South, Lincoln issued the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, which allowed the rebel states to rejoin the Union if 10% of the voters wanted to join. This was known as Lincoln's 10% Plan. On the other hand, Congress passed the Wade-Davis plan which called for stricter requirements to rejoin, such as an admittance that the person hadn't voluntarily supported the Confederacy. However, both plans mentioned nothing about black suffrage.

Answer 2

He was a republican who, although opposed to it, preferred tolerating slavery to breaking up the union. He favored protective tariffs.