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Here you are making my case for evaluating behavior not by our standards, but by standards & values of the time.

I have no problem with evaluating people's behavior by the standards of their times, but Lincoln was a pioneer in underhanded dirty tactics of which I do not think he has an equal in that era.

Boss Tweed later, but I know of no one else who would use rail cars to carry massive numbers of fake supporters to bribe and intimidate a convention.

Of course modern liberals still use this tactic now known as "astro-turffing".

Lincoln pioneered the "rent a crowd" technique.

Seward's 1860 train to Chicago bringing supporters:

DiogenesLamp: "I know of no one else who would use rail cars to carry massive numbers of fake supporters to bribe and intimidate a convention."

How many times have we discussed those events, and yet you continue to lie about it?

No, it was not Lincoln who would "use rail cars to carry massive numbers of fake supporters" to the Chicago Republican convention in 1860!

That was Lincoln's chief rival and future Secretary of State, NY Sen. William Seward, who did that.
Seward was the leading candidate and almost won the nomination through such tactics.

Lincoln's supporters had their own tactics, but in the end, Seward himself did not think he was illegally cheated out of the nomination, and Seward agreed to serve loyally in Lincoln's administration.
Soon, Seward came to genuinely admire Lincoln, writing his wife:

"The President is the best of us..."

Seward served Lincoln loyally, then Johnson after him, retiring in 1869, Seward traveled the world for two years returning home to Auburn, NY, in late 1871.
He passed away a year later, in October 1872, age 72.