Have to hand it to the people on this one. While President James Monroe tried compensated emancipation - buying slaves' freedom and then returning them to Africa, it was not a popular policy or a successful one.
Other Presidents who might have leaned towards abolition had to be very careful. I would compare it, just for the sake of comparing, to gay marriage today as an issue. That is, right or wrong, many people in the United States oppose making it legal, so if I was to campaign for that issue, it would be difficult to get elected, especially in certain states.
Presidents at that time knew they could not get elected with a majority if they were openly for abolition. The only reason Lincoln won - and remember, he did not campaign for abolition, only stopping slavery's spread - was because there were two Democrats running against him, and they split the vote. He only had 41% of the final vote.
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