Why did lincoln decide in favor of emancipation

Lincoln felt that his most important task was to bring the Union back together. He did not want the issue of slavery to divide the nation further than it already had. Even so, Lincoln realized how important slave labor was to the South. Without it, the South would grow weak and be easier to defeat. By the summer of 1862, the president had decided in favor of emancipating, or freeing, enslaved

C. the presidential cabinet