Lincoln was elected Nov 6, 1860
He was sworn in March of 1861.
He read his Emancipation Proclamation in January of 1863.
He ran on a platform that vowed not to end slavery, but not to extend slavery
I guess South Carolina read it differently because it was the first state to secede, on Dec 20th, 1860, just barely a month after Lincoln was elected, and before he was sworn in. “Within three months of Lincoln’s election, seven states had seceded from the Union.”
Lincoln didn’t originally plan to outlaw slavery, until the South turned into such an asshole. I guess by then he figured he had nothing to lose by outlawing it.