“But you tell me, was the institution of slavery wrong or not?”
Not to put too fine a point on this, but — are you asking me if slavery was wrong before the northern states tired of it, or afterwards?
I’m not sure the northern states ever tired of slavery. Massachusetts never enacted any laws against slavery. It was only outlawed there when the Civil Rights Act passed in the 60’s. The 1960’s that is.
The north was making too much money using southern cotton to weave fabric up in the New England mills. To do that they needed to enslave children as young as 6 years old to work in the mills.
The north was making too much money off the onerous tariffs they enacted so four southern states were paying 90% of that federal income. Those were the days before income tax so the north was getting a free ride off the southern productivity.
The emancipation proclamation only freed Southern slaves. The Union slaves were kept enslaved.
And BTW there were thousands of black slaver owners who didn’t want slavery to end. But they were southerners so...
The greatest of the founders, even the great ones from Virginia, were already tired of the institution of slavery at the founding, as has been demonstrated to you already on this thread.
They couldn't find the political will and means to stop in their time, but at least, to their credit, they put it on the path to extinction.
By 1860, the North had aleady pretty much carried out that program.
But the leadership in the South was determined not only to hold onto the infernal institution, but to greatly expand it wherever possible.
That's the history of what ultimately led to war.