[Heyworth]

Forgive my lack of enthusiasm for buying into that sort of "ends justifies the means" garbage.

It's not an "end justifying the means" situation. It's an excising of the cancer that had made the patient sick. Do you expect that, once war has begun, Lincoln should have left one of its proximate causes untouched?

[GOPcapitalist]

It's an excising of the cancer that had made the patient sick.

...and mutilating his remaining functioning entrails in the process.

[stand watie]

the FATAL flaw in your argument is lincoln's own correspondence, wherein he states that he has NO INTEREST in freeing ANY slaves, "wherever domiciled".

free dixie,sw