[jeffersondem]

“Are you saying Lincoln wanted to overthrow Slavery, or to expand it? Seems like you are not sure.”

It seems like Lincoln was not sure of what he intended to do with slavery.

You must know that as an attorney Lincoln defended slave owners’ rights to get fugitive slaves back.

Even as late as his first inaugural address Lincoln advocated enforcing fugitive slave laws in the north.

But after Lincoln's skillful use of the U.S. Navy during the Gulf of Tonkin Incident - I mean the Fort Sumter Incident - President Lincoln became belligerent, eventually destroying political and economic opponents in the South using the Sherman-Chivington method.

At Gettysburg Lincoln said the war was not just fought to free the slaves, but claimed the war was fought for the purpose of racial equality. This is quite a contrast to Lincoln's claim in his first inaugural address.

[cowboyusa]

It was the SOUTHERN UNIONISTS under Sherman that fought the most ferociously. The are part of the South as well, indeed, if I had been a Southerner at that time, I would have fought for the Union, they carried on the Jacksonian tradition.

[HandyDandy]

I think Lincoln was pretty sure what he intended to do about Slavery. I think the South was pretty sure what he intended to do also. That’s why they left. The fact that he upheld (as you cite) Slavery laws of the land doesn’t tell us his personal views on Slavery. He hated Slavery. Even you know that. Don’t confuse his contemporary racial inequality views with his views on Slavery. Despite the early view, which he outgrew, that blacks were inferior to whites, he still hated the institution of Slavery. Does this ring a bell, “No man should earn his bread from the sweat of another man’s brow”? What Lincoln did was make the hollow words of the founding fathers stick. All men are created equal. The matter of whether or not all men were the same is a separate issue. It took Baptism by Blood for this country to grow up.
Perhaps you can enlighten us as to just what Lincoln was thinking at the moment the bullet ripped through his brain. As the story goes he had recently delivered a speech to the Nation (now reunited) in which he spoke about giving Blacks the right to vote. The demented coward who shot him from behind didn’t like that speech. The point is that neither you nor anyone else has the right to judge Lincoln, because his work was never finished. In fact, his assassination made things that much worse for the South. I like to think today’s world would be very different had Lincoln lived to complete the four years of his second term.