At 39 Lincoln was over half-way through his life; your statement that he was “very young” at 39 is not credible."
In 1848 Lincoln had been in Congress less than one year and had 17 years yet to live.
In those remaining 17 years Lincoln learned orders of magnitude more about the political world than he knew as a, ahem, "young man" with less than a year in Congress.
As for whether Lincoln was a "young man" or "very young" I'll put it this way: when I see old photos of myself at that age, I see a very young man.
As for young vs. old Lincoln, you be the judge:
jeffersondem: "Your statement (”A very young Abe Lincoln did once argue for a seemingly unlimited “right of secession . . .”) was simply an obscurant released into the debate space to cover the fact Mr. Lincoln was once an advocate of secession."
Noooo… the real problem is you people lie so much you start to believe your own lies.
I'd say rather, if anything, Lincoln's actions in 1861 were in fact consistent with his words of 1848.
The truth is Lincoln did not start war over secession, but in his First Inaugural offered what we today would call "peaceful coexistence" with Confederates -- basically he said: "if Confederates allow me to keep my oath of office, there will be no war, unless Confederates start it."
So war came not because Lincoln "opposed secession", but because Jefferson Davis started it, at Fort Sumter.