Why Were The Radical Republicans Radical?

[My Name Is Kate]

This is my reply to a post that no longer exists.

Any attempt to keep slavery out of the territories was unconstitutional because it violated the non-exclusion clause in the Constitution (maybe someone can remember which clause that is...I don't at the moment.) At least that is my understanding. If I am wrong about that, someone please explain to me why.

But the point I am trying to make is that Lincoln said his number one goal was to keep the Union together, and that he would do it either by freeing all of the slaves or none of them. In other words, the plight of the slaves was not his major concern. So if the Crittenden Compromise offered an opportunity to both keep the Union together and avoid a civil war, why did Lincoln not jump at the chance? Because he didn't want slavery to spread? Yes, he said that, but why then did he also say he would save the Union by not freeing any of the slaves, if that was the only way to do it? Either slavery was objectionable to him or it was not. Or did he only care about possible future slaves in the territories, but not the slaves in the slave states? Interfering with either of them was unconstitutional. Stopping the spread of slavery in the territories would put an end to the South's political domination in the federal government. Is that why the plight of those slaves was more important to him than the ones in the states?