Ah, you beat me to it while I was typing. I was taqsked to read “Lincoln on Leadership.” After reading that book about that man, I think you give him far too much credit.
“I think that Lincoln misunderstood this and used the tyrannical power of the federal government to create one centralized body which would be ruled from Washington.”
I think that’s like saying that Obama is misunderstanding the Constitution. The face is, Lincoln said he would (I’m paraphrasing, I’d have to go look it up) essentially destroy the Constitution to preserve the Union. It wasn’t about slavery, it wasn’t about what was right, it was about power, pure and simple.
“He used force to impose the power of government on people who did not wish to be subject to that power. Not what this country was created for.”
Exactly. And he would ask his Generals to use their best judgement, and then overstep and micromanage them, and passive agressively berate them. Not to mention forcing his way into people’s homes when they disagreed with him, and badgering them until they did what he wanted. He was, in every sense of the word, a tyrant.
Don't forget that Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus. At his command, but with absolutely no legal authority, he suspended 300 newspapers from production, censored all telegraphic communications, rigged elections in the North, oversaw the intimidation of Democratic voters (in New York City hundreds of protesters against conscription were shot,) he unconstitutionally carved West Virginia out of Virginia, and he deported the most outspoken member of the Democratic Party, Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio. Duly-elected members of the Maryland legislature were goaled, so was the mayor and a Maryland Congressman. Lincoln disarmed citizens of the Border States, in complete disregard of the 2nd Amendment, and he seized private property.
What a champ!