A little cut and dry. Moderate abolitionists wanted to do it through a constitutional amendment. Only the more radical, fringe, John Brown lefty types, wanted to do it without regard to the law.
Anyone who wanted to abolish slavery was an abolitionist, by whatever means. They were all among the radical fringe, making up perhaps 5%.
Lincoln and the Republicans had the position of stopping the spread of slavery into the territories, an eminently reasonable position - which of course in the long run threatened the survival of slavery. But then again, Lincoln backed the proposal to entrench slavery by constitutional amendment, one that supposedly could not be repealed.
A little cut and dry. Moderate abolitionists wanted to do it through a constitutional amendment. Only the more radical, fringe, John Brown lefty types, wanted to do it without regard to the law.
Anyone who wanted to abolish slavery was an abolitionist, by whatever means. They were all among the radical fringe, making up perhaps 5%.
Lincoln and the Republicans had the position of stopping the spread of slavery into the territories, an eminently reasonable position - which of course in the long run threatened the survival of slavery. But then again, Lincoln backed the proposal to entrench slavery by constitutional amendment, one that supposedly could not be repealed.