Did he?
...calling out the army at the drop of a hat...
Under the authority granted him by the Militia Act to suppress the rebellion.
...suspending habeus corpus...
Something he believed he had the power to do. Since the Supreme Court has never ruled on that then we don't know if his actions were illegal or not.
...throwing congressmen in jail...
Former congressman (singular). And Lincoln didn't do it, Burnside did on his own under authority granted him by Congress. Lincoln just commuted the sentence to being sent to the confederate states.
...attacking NYC with artillery...
You've been watching "Gangs of New York" again, haven't you? Artillery wasn't used to put down the New York riots.
...firing on Ft. Sumter...
Don't you have that backwards? Jefferson Davis fired on Sumter, without the approval of the confederate congress by the way.
...authorizing the burning of the South...
War is hell.
...freeing the slaves in the south but not the north.
Which he did not have the power to do Constitutionally. The Emancipation Proclamation was a war act, an extension of the Confiscation Acts which the courts had ruled to be constitutional. It was issued in his role as Commander in Chief, and not as president.
He was a frickin' dictator, get it, pal?
Not so much, no.
Are you a judicial activist, non?