What kind of Republican was Abraham Lincoln?

Answer 1

Abraham Lincoln was, like the majority of the Republican party in the 1860s, a moderate. The party was made up of moderates like Lincoln, who believed that the Civil War was about the preservation of the Union and that slavery could be abolished through gradual emancipation, and Radicals, who thought that slavery had to be abolished at once and that was the point of the War. Although gradually Lincoln became more steadfast in his views of immediate abolition (he was instrumental in passing the 13th amendment abolishing slavery), he always remained moderate.