Lincoln was able to speak to both sides of the slavery debate. why did he feel compelled to speak to both sides, given his personal solution to the problem of slavery?

Well Lincoln was an honest man who believed in honest hard work but he felt that forceing a man or woman to do so without equal pay was unworthy of being called a respectable American. He felt drawn to speaking on both sides because he wanted to find common ground between the union and the confederacy but that was a difficult task in its own due to the civil war going on at the time. Ultimately he was able to free the slaves by using his presidency and powers of persuasion.