[miliantnutcase]

And big government was born...

[Colonel Kangaroo]

And big government was born...(under Lincoln)

Nothing would have changed a bit under Lincoln's term had the secessionists not agitated, and sometimes cheated, their way into into state secessions of dubious Constitutional legitimacy for grievances of no Constitutional significance. The last thing Lincoln wished to do upon taking office was to disturb or alter the federal republic his predecessors left him.