I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel. And yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling.
--April 4, 1864 Letter to Albert Hodges
You will get those, including academics, who will dispute this. They are wrong. I've spent years on Lincoln. They are wrong. HE HATED SLAVERY. His 2 visits down the Missippi to New Orleans when quite young resulted in his close viewing of slave markets and the experience reached to his soul.
