If you have a site link this WSJ story. Has anyone read the history of our civil war ? The problems Lincoln had not only with Democrats but with the Republicans as well.Deaths by the thousands. Riots in New York, Copperheads in Illinois, shoddy shoes, cannons that blew up, (he actually set up a separate political party) and ran as a kind of fusion candidate for his 2nd term. What he did have what Bush doesn't was much of MSM was behind him. But thats when Americans were Americans and understood what our country was about.
http://www.theusmat.com/
The Americans of the South might have, but Northern Americans allowed Mr. Lincoln to trash our Constitution and plunge a dagger into the Republic and Federalism.
Although the article is right in that Lincoln would have sacked those who didn't serve effectively, you give too much credit to the 1860s understanding of the Republic, IMHO.