In addition to my other comments on Lincoln's support of the American Colonization Society in this thread, I'd also like to add here my criticism of how the Republican (and Democratic) parties at the time also set the foundation for the Guilded Age monopolies that would come after Lincoln with regards to their railroad policy which was tied to their general homesteading policy. They kinda screwed their own voters a generation later when the railroad monopolies started charging all those Republican-voting farmers in Kansas high rates on freight. Lincoln, being a product of Illinois politics like his Democratic contemporary, Stephen Douglas, was a product of that environment that was heavily influenced by budding railway interests.