I have read opposing stories about Lincoln's opinions about slavery and whether he was against it for moral reasons. I guess my question is was Lincoln for equality or were there other reasons behind the emancipation?
Abraham Lincoln was opposed to slavery for moral reasons.
As a young man, he took a riverboat down the Mississippi and witnessed the brutal workings of the institution with his own eyes. Remember that your average Northerner had probably never met a slave, nor seen a plantation, nor a slave market. Travel was much slower. This is part of the reason Uncle Tom's Cabin was so popular--it was revelatory somewhat like Blood Diamonds today.
Lincoln was greatly disturbed by his personal exposure to the practice. In an 1855 letter to his old travel partner, he recalled the trip they had taken together:
You know I dislike slavery....I hate to see the poor creatures hunted down, and caught, and carried back to their stripes, and unrewarded toils; but I bite my lip and keep quiet. In 1841 you and I had together a tedious low-water trip, on a Steam Boat from Louisville to St. Louis. You may remember, as I well do, that from Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio, there were, on board, ten or a dozen slaves, shackled together with irons. That sight was a continued torment to me; and I see something like it every time I touch the Ohio, or any other slave-border....As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except negroes." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics." When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty—to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.
As a rep in the Illinois state house, he declared,
the institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy...[but] the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than to abate its evils.
He also came around to an idea of "free labor," that a person's freedom to work can and should offer any person the opportunity to advance in life. This was, of course, incompatible with slavery.
As a politician, he was vocally opposed to the expansion of slavery, though his initial position was that the Constitution forbade the federal government from abolishing it in states where it already existed. There were more radical folks than him that thought it should be abolished entirely, and they initially viewed Lincoln as something of a disappointment. The South viewed Lincoln as a mortal threat, and his anti-slavery stance was a primary driver in the secession crisis.
Lincoln did not immediately move to abolish slavery. He believed in "colonization" and gradual, compensated emancipation. Essentially, in his ideal world, slaveholders would be paid to free their slaves, who could then travel to Liberia (voluntarily), where a repatriated colony of free black folks had been founded in 1816 with sponsorship by prominent politicians and socialites. This would both cure the ill of slavery and avoid the issue of reintegration, which was widely argued to be impossible. Lincoln called it a "glorious consummation."
I see you ask if Lincoln was for equality. I think his view there is best summed up by his opening statement in the first Lincoln-Douglas Debate:
I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and the black races.... But I hold that ... there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Before he became President, Lincoln seemed content to envision a mass exodus upon emancipation, and did not much consider the idea that freed slaves would stay in the country for long. In the interim period, he said publicly that he did not "favor" intermarriage nor suffrage.
When the war came, Lincoln did not immediately move towards emancipation. This again angered the radical abolitionists.
Many cite an editorial written in July 1862 as evidence of a somewhat cynical view of the issue.
If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union....
I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free.
What is overlooked by the cynics is that Lincoln had already drafted the Emancipation Proclamation and presented it to his cabinet. They agreed with it in principle, but urged him to wait for a military victory. The South was enjoying a summer of victories, in the East at least, and the administration did not want to seem desperate.
Lincoln got the victory he needed at Antietam, September 17, 1862, the bloodiest day in American history, about 7 weeks after the editorial was published. He issued the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation a week later, and the Proclamation took full effect on January 1, 1863.
There were some military and political reasons for emancipation beyond equality. It reduced the power of the Southern slave labor force, which contributed significantly to their war effort. It put the South on the wrong side of international relations with England and France, which were anti-slavery. It also paved the way for black soldiers, who would provide a critical surge as the war intensified.
By the time of his death, Lincoln supported suffrage for at least black Union veterans. John Wilkes Booth famously retorted to Lincoln's opinion: "That means n***** citizenship. Now by God I’ll put him through!" Four days later, Booth killed him.
TLDR Lincoln believed in equality of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. He was morally and politically against slavery, hoping to recolonize freed slaves in Africa if they so chose. Emancipation was thus an affirmation of his personal opinions, although it carried military and political benefits as well.
Some sources:
http://www.asjournal.org/53-2009/abraham-lincolns-attitudes-on-slavery-and-race/
https://www.binghamton.edu/history/resources/journal-of-history/lincoln.html
Lincoln was an opponent of the slavery as an institution is some way or another his whole life. Post Civil Rights movement Lincoln's views on race and slavery have been investigated with a fine toothed comb, and to what degree the emancipation was a moral or a political document is a fiercely debated question, but there are some clear and common threads.
Lincoln grew up as an anti-slavery man (his father did not support slavery and passed some of the disgust of the practice to young Abraham). Lincoln himself spoke of seeing slaves and being horrified by the cruelty of the practice, and being morally disturbed by his exposure to them. In a letter to his friend Joshua Speed he is quoted as saying. "[T]here were, on board, ten or a dozen slaves, shackled together with irons. That sight was a continual torment to me; and I see something like it every time I touch the Ohio, or any other slave-border"
As a young man Lincoln again spoke against slavery as an institution. "I have always hated slavery, I think as much as any abolitionist." Another quote that came much later ". If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel." There is no question that Lincoln was an anti-slavery man his whole life. When it comes to abolition however that becomes a much trickier question. If you will notice in one of the above quotes Lincoln says that he "hates slavery as much as any abolitionist". Clearly drawing a line between himself and abolitionists. (Unrelated but super interesting point. Abolitionism as a movement at the time was viewed as radical and dangerous even by many anti-slavery men.)
Lincoln seems to have believed that slavery, while a great moral evil, was not worth splitting the country apart over. This was a point that he repeatedly made in his presidential campaign. Lincoln was quoted in Cincinnati as saying "I think slavery is wrong, morally, and politically. I desire that it should be no further spread in these United States, and I should not object if it should gradually terminate in the whole Union." A more explicit quote explaining this policy. "You think slavery is right and ought to be extended; we think it is wrong and ought to be restricted. For this, neither has any just occasion to be angry with the other. " Lincoln hated and detested slavery wishing that it would die of it's own accord. But he recognized that "The autocrat of all the Russia's will resign his crown, and proclaim his subjects free republicans sooner than will our American masters voluntarily give up all their slaves". Lincoln was, in short fearful that the country would be split apart by the abolition of slavery and as such for the good of the nation it must be allowed to remain where it was and, hopefully, be extinguished with time. That said, he did oppose its further spread into new states/territories.
Lincoln favored the abolition of slavery, but he refused to do so if it would hurt the Union cause/drive deeper wounds into the nation. And there were other factors besides his moral drive to see it ended that impacted his decision.
Slavery was clearly of significant military benefit to the south. Southerner's were able to use slaves to perform work such as building fortifications, digging trenches, etc... Slave labor was the backbone of the Southern economy and its value to the Confederate cause was not lost on Union commanders.
Two case studies of Lincoln's attitude towards emancipation of slaves used by the confederacy for the war effort can be found in the treatment of Freemont vs Welles. General Freemont famously freed captured slaves with his emancipation edict. This led to Lincoln firing Freemont for fear that his actions would spark unrest, and possible succession, in the border states. Gideon Welles (Lincoln's secretary of the navy) was afraid that Lincoln would similarly rebuke/force the reverse of the Navy Department's similar policy of confiscating slaves captured at sea. However Lincoln was silent on the issue. The reason was simple, the press had not reported on the Navy's policy and as such there was no fear of unrest in the border states as a result.
As the war went on it became more and more clear that a key step to breaking the South's strength was the abolition of slavery and the emancipation of slaves. Beyond that Lincoln became more and more convinced of the moral necessity of freeing slaves, and the impossibility of the Union being reformed as a state half slave and half free. All of these factors contributed to the Emancipation Proclamation.
Going back to your original question the answer is complicated. Lincoln certainly disliked the institution of slavery and, multiple times, cited wishing that it could be destroyed, albeit without destroying the Union in the process. As the war went on he became convinced that for the reunion of the nation as well as the winning of the war slavery must be abolished. However, this does not mean that his moral opposition to slavery was not also a key factor in his decision to free slaves in states in rebellion.
There is not a clear answer as to how these different factors were weighed. However, I would argue that Lincoln's commitment to the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment (which was not a popular political point) demonstrated his personal commitment to the anti-slavery cause. Had he only been seeking to damage the Southern war effort then allowing the emancipation proclamation to lapse in peacetime could well have brought a sooner end to the war and certainly would have lessened southern intractability to peace. If Lincoln was truly only concerned for reuniting the Union then his steadfast support/titanic efforts to support the passage of the thirteenth amendment would not make sense.
Some Sources Quotes from
Lincoln, Abraham. The collected works of Abraham Lincoln. Edited by Roy P. Basler. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1974.
And Donald, David Herbert. Lincoln. New York; Simon & Schuster, 1995.
Context from, a bunch of others are not directly cited. These were just the ones I had on hand.
Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Team of Rivals. New York; Simon & Schuster; 2005.
Kiefer, Joseph. Slavery and Four Years of War. Echo Library; 2009.