Before the war what did the us goverment want to do about slavery

Lincoln Douglas debates.
a house divided against itself cannot stand.I believe this government cannot endure,permantly,half slave and half free.I do not expect fhe Union to be dissolved.I do not expect the house to fall.But I do expect it will ceasd to be divided.It will bexome all one thing to another.Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it,and place it where the public mind shall rest in belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction;or its advocates will push it forward,it shall become lawful in all States,old as wel as new-north as well as south.