The Kritenden Compromise

If that had passed, I think slavery would have endured into the 20th century. If Lincoln had been purely a political creature, you take that deal. Why did he say no? Because he actually listened to what the opposition had said. He listened to the designs and ambitions of the white slave owning South. They wanted to go to Cuba. They wanted Nicaragua. They wanted huge parts of Mexico, particularly along the Gulf. And they saw slavery not as something that was headed toward extinction,. which is what Lincoln insisted that it had to do. It was an institution that was going to grow, not shrink.