After Lincoln became President he, with partial compensation to owners, ended slavery in the District of Columbia in 1862 when the abolitionist goal became possible, after decades of effort, with the departure of the Southern members of Congress at the beginning of the Civil War. In 1861 and 1862, Lincoln tried unsuccessfully to get the loyal border states of Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri to also do so. He repeatedly stated that his goal was the preservation of the Union, not the ending of slavery in those states in which it still existed, but throughout the war he encouraged states to abolish slavery. State abolition plans were adopted in Maryland, Missouri, West Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Arkansas before the end of the war. While he encouraged them, Lincoln could not directly force border states to abolish slavery during the Civil War and he reasonably feared that, if he tried to do so, they would secede from the Union to join the Southern states, and that this would result both in the North losing the Civil War and in the continued existence of slavery.