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Caleb (MisterJonez) gave us rich, detailed background on Lincoln and his views on the Civil War. Jonezie does, if I understand him right, consider Lincoln's attitude toward slavery suspect?
To pick one idea out of Jonez' remarks, here's a followup question for him (a literal question to a man who's studied it more than I have). That single quote by Lincoln (to the effect he would pursue peace even at the cost of retaining slavery) is resonant.
However, other ideas of Lincoln's cause me to question exactly what the spirit was on that quote. Did Lincoln mean something along the lines of ME (Jeff) saying, "If I could allow secession of the West Coast so that they could just do their own thing on reproductive rights, I would"? In the broader context of seeking compromise without 100,000's of dead soldiers fighting over the issue?
In about 10-12 sentences, the Gettysburg Address stated Lincoln's thoughts on what the Civil War was about. I think the context of that Address was decisive, Lincoln standing over the smoking dead bodies lying there after his Presidential orders to battle. it was Deathbed Declaration type of moment. If you can't take the word of a man in his last five minutes of life, you can't take it at all. I think right after the Dying Declaration comes those 270 words you said after the Battle of Gettysburg.
Lincoln only said about 3 or 4 things in the Address and the first thing he underlined was the idea that all men are created equal. The direction of that statement is clear in context.
My own thought here - feel free to counter me - is that if I somehow limited myself :- ) to just 250-300 words on this blog, right after a nuclear war, you could take those 250 words as my most representative. You'd hold me accountable for THOSE words and I'd want you to.
