Well said.
I've encountered too many folks who bash Lincoln and seem to think slaves were 'other' as if they were in orbit or something, instead of being human beings owned by other human beings in our country.
It's interesting to see how folks who bash Lincoln seem more infuriated by the high regard for him than they are by the idea of slavery (these are some of the same folks, oddly, who rightly get angry about the killing of human by abortion). They bring up his human flaws, as if by proving he wasn't perfect (no one I know thinks he was) that will somehow dissipate the good he did.
All of this conveniently ignores the sins of those he opposed.
Good to see the freshmen have some historical perspective. That kind of thinking tells me they also won't be bullied by the short-term history that tells them to 'just get over' the whole 'abortion thing'--being conscious of Lincoln's great act might inspire them to save millions from something worse than slavery: destruction in an abortion mill in the name of another kind of sin hidden under lies about "independence".
The civil war was not fighting “over the slaves” anymore than the demonstrations in Wisconsin now are “for the children.”