Was the slavery battle primarily a conflict between two different economic systems, or was it more of a moral issue?

The slavery battle was a moral issue. Many wealthy slave owners felt guilty for owning slaves and released them in their wills. Many slave owners tried to justify owning slaves by claiming that slavery taught slaves Christianity and Western ways. While the Southern economy and the world textile industry as a whole relied on slavery, very few slave owners used this as a defense against abolitionists. There was little worry that slaves would be able to compete with imported European laborers in the North, as many did not think that the slave was "intelligent" enough to work in the factory. Abolitionists always claimed that slavery was evil, though they did it for various reasons. Only a minority of abolitionists believed that the slaves would be capable of attaining full citizenship in the United States. Many, including Lincoln, believed that the slaves should be sent elsewhere upon attaining their freedom since the former slaves would probably never be treated fairly. While some Northerners did claim that freeing the slaves might take away jobs from those of European descent, this was not a mainstream argument. The main arguments for getting rid of slavery centered around the morality of owning slaves.