Like all the other countries of the world in the nineteenth century that ended slavery (including the British and Spanish empires, the French, Danes, Swedes, Dutch, and others), we could have done so peacefully and in a relatively short amount of time.
Instead, Lincoln was responsible for murdering some 350,000 fellow Americans in the 1860s, the equivalent of 3.5 million deaths today. Lincoln covered up his war crimes with a masterful use of religious rhetoric; his modern-day excuse makers are doing the same.
The responsibility and the blame lies squarely on the backs of the thieving bastards that started the whole affair - the southern slavers. May they rot in hell.
How?