Southern sabotage of the Democrat Party was designed to elect Lincoln and give them the excuse they were looking for to secede. It wasn't a new idea and had been in the works for a decade.
Lincoln's actions in perserving the Union and Constitution were justified given the seriousness of the threat and the fact of war.
NO...he was not. NO ONE is allowed to supersede the Constitution. That is a dangerous precedence, AND because of his stupidity, I envision some Democrat like Hillary Clinton using the same excuse one day.....
The Founding Fathers did not give anyone the power to suspend the Constitution for a reason.