To what extent was the election of Abraham Lincoln a mandate for the abolition of

slavery in the United States?

I believe that Abraham Lincoln’s election was a mandate for the abolishment of slavery in the
United States for many reasons. Even though many believe it was to preserve the union. The Union
was not yet dissolved until after the election of 1860, when the South, as it had threatened to do before
the election, seceded, solely because an "abolitionist" president was elected. If Lincoln was more
concerned with saving the Union in the election of 1860 than abolition, then he would not have run on
an anti-slavery platform in an abolitionist political party. It was Lincoln's political platform and his
party's abolitionist plank that caused the South to threaten secession. Of, course, no political debate and
certainly no war is fought over one single issue, but in the 1860's, it was slavery that formed the context
of any and all disagreements and divisions within the country, as gun control, health care or abortion is
today.