Lincolns timeline on slavery:

March 3, 1837, Lincoln made one of his first public declarations against slavery. "Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having passed both branches of the General Assembly at its present session, [I] hereby protest against the passage of the same. July 1, 1854: Lincoln often encountered views supporting slavery, but he argued against justifying slavery based on color and intellect. You say A. is white, and B. is black. It is color, then; the lighter, having the right to enslave the darker? Take care. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with a fairer skin than your own. October 16, 1854: Lincoln attacked slavery on the grounds that its existence within the United States made American democracy appear hypocritical in the eyes of the world. However, he also confessed his uncertainty as how to end slavery where it then existed, because he believed that neither colonolization nor racial equality were practical. I can not but hate [the declared indifference for slavery's spread]. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world -- enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites.

August 24, 1855, in a letter to his friend Joshua Speed, Lincoln freely expressed his hatred of slavery but he did not recommend immediate emancipation.

You ought rather to appreciate how much the great body of the Northern
people do crucify their feelings, in order to maintain their loyalty to the constitution and the Union. I do oppose the extension of slavery, because my judgment and feelings so prompt me; and I am under no obligation to the contrary. August 1, 1858, this is perhaps Lincoln's most succinct description of his beliefs on democracy and slavery.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy. October 7, 1858 Lincoln claimed that slavery ran counter to American democratic principles because the Declaration of Independence's phrase. All men are created equal" applied to African-Americans . October 13, 1858 Lincoln argued that the Founding Fathers considered slavery wrong, and firmly expected it to die a natural death.

October 15, 1858 ...I have never sought to apply these principles to the old States for the purpose of abolishing slavery in those States. It is nothing but a miserable perversion of what I have said, to assume that I have declared Missouri, or any other slave State shall emancipate her slaves. I have proposed no such thing. October 18, 1858 I have made it equally plain that I think the negro is included in the word "men" used in the Declaration of Independence. April 6, 1859 This is a world of compensations; and he who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it. September 17, 1859 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. I say that we must not interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists, because the constitution forbids it, and the general welfare does not require us to do so.

We must prevent the revival of the African slave trade and the enacting by Congress of a territorial slave code. September 17, 1859 We know, Southern men declare that their slaves are better off than hired laborers amongst us. How little they know, whereof they speak! There is no permanent class of hired laborers amongst us. Free labor has the inspiration of hope; pure slavery has no hope. February 1, 1861 I say now, however, as I have all the while said, that on the territorial question -- that is, the institution question of extending slavery under the national auspices, -- I am inflexible. I am for no compromise which assists or permits the extension of the on soil owned by the nation.

April 11, 1865: Lincoln's Last Public Address In Lincoln's last public address, he recommended extending the right to vote to the African Americans who had fought for the Union. This expressed his belief that African Americans should be granted full political equality.

Source: http://www.nps.gov/liho/historyculture/slavery.htm