It is easy to criticize in hindsight—affecting moral superiority over those who lived in long ago and much different times.A**holes focus on single issues that validate their personal hate-like painting George Washington as ONLY some white devil slave master and nothing else—well GW did own slaves yet he was still the chief founder of the most just and free country the earth has ever seen.
The South perceived Lincoln as a threat to their way of life and in essence he was because he was elected by those states where emancipation of the slaves would not result in economic collapse.
To the South, slavery was the ultimate necessary evil and even many Southerners were aware the institution was intrinsically wicked and damned to end someday.
When Great Britain outlawed slavery in her colonies she purchased the freedom of those slaves in areas where the economic impact of emancipation could result in war.
It worked and it was a shame that the United States couldn't come up with such a peaceful alternative to invading and laying waste to the South with atrocities,war crimes and typical Yankee bad manners.
Funny thing though—personally I AM glad Lincoln was a cruel determined savage in his efforts to preserve the Union otherwise the South would have won.
My CSA Army veteran great grandads were (respectively) South Carolinian and Tennessean first—Their great grandson is an American first.
So even though I cheer at Fredericksburg and curse at Gettysburg, I give a sigh of relief at Appomattox.