How was the North exploiting the South? Defenders of the Confederate cause often like to talk about how few southerners actually owned slaves. How did the North exploit all these subsistence farmers any more than they would have exploited the similar farmers in the Midwest? What's the difference between a yeoman in Michigan and one in Georgia?
The truth is that in their arrogant self-centeredness, the slaveowning class thought of their narrow class interests as the interests of the South. The bulk of southerners had no real conflict with the North except that which was whipped up by the slaveowning elite.
Secondly, Lincoln's success in keeping the Union together placed our country on a path that has led to the government being the omnipotent force that it has become. Lincoln started it, FDR took it to new heights and LBJ solidified that the federal government is the all powerful, all knowing, all everything to everyone.
That's like blaming George Washington and the founders for big government today. Blame Woodrow Wilson another Southern Democrat. I guess blaming Lincoln for 20th century events somehow cloaks a revolt of slaveowning politicians with noble purpose, but Davis's regime was unmatched in despotism in American history. If that gang had won, no telling what type of leviathan would have grown in Richmond.
The term for what I refer to is precedent. The SCOTUS thrives on it and Presidents have also used it for guidance.