Second, how did he go from his promise not to change slavery, to choosing, after just one year, to issue a decree of liberation? The United States Constitution and the progress of the Civil War contain all the answers. As an individual, Lincoln absolutely hated slavery, he wanted to ban it from the new states that were developing. However, because he was president of the United States, Lincoln was bound by the Constitution which does not specify whether slavery was actually legal or illegal. As president of the Army during the Civil War, Lincoln was plagued by support from borderline slave states and Northern Democrats. This Confederacy would likely have won the war against the Union if the Republicans had attempted to abolish slavery as early as