You've been sold a bill of goods.
All Lincoln said, all that was asked of him, was to preserve the Union. Lincoln was gifted with a very powerful intellect, a furnace of ambition, a pragmatic, practical side and a great heart. That's a pretty good combination.
He asked, and I will ask you: Can aliens make treaties better than friends can make laws? Can we fend off al Quaeda better if we split up? I don't think so. Lincoln looked at the history of Europe. Jeepers, who wouldn't want to avoid that crock of crap? We had done it -- formed a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Through many trials and half steps we came to the Constitution. It may not be the best document for governing, but it is the best one extant.
You want some sort of pie in the sky nirvana that is simply NOT supported by what we know of human behavior. The framers tried a less stringent document. It was a failure. You seem to want another recipe for failure. George Washington knew it. He wrote to John Jay, 1786:
"Your sentiments that are affairs are rapidly drawing to a crisis, accord with my own. What the event will be is also beyond the reach of my foresight. We have errors to correct. We have probably had too good an opinion of human nature in forming our confederation. Experience has taught us, that men will not adopt & carry into execution, measures the best calculated for their own good without a coercive power. I do not conceive we can exist long as a nation, without having lodged somewhere a power which will pervade the whole Union in as energetic a manner, as the authority of the different state governments extends over the several States. To be fearful of vesting Congress, constituted as that body is, with ample authorities for national purposes, appears to me the very climax of popular absurdity and madness."
The Constitution is the best document yet conceived for real life.
Walt
Do you believe the Union came before the Constitution?