Lincoln is at the bottom of my list of presidents. He laid waste to the Constitution as no one ever has! States have a right to secede, and some states joined the Union with that assurance. According to Lincoln, federal power was more important than states' rights.
He assumed powers, such as the suspension of habeas corpus, granted only to the Congress, but since the Congress was in recess, that was OK by him. He had soldiers imprison members of the Maryland legislature. In ex parte Merryman, Lincoln refused the Supreme Court's writ of habeas corpus. Lincoln violated every law that got in his way, and after his death, the Republican Party in the same corrupt vein, rammed through the 14th Amendment in one of the most sickening abrogations of the law.
As many as 700,000 people died in the Civil War who shouldn't have died for a grossly unconstitutional act. Men were involuntarily drafted into service. The blockading of the naval ports, ordering of ships, it goes on and on. Lincoln was the worst tyrant we have had. Even FDR made some attempt to follow the Constitution.
Slavery was a deeply horrible thing, but growing financial and moral pressures would have soon ended it. States could have (and should have) refused to trade with the South.
I agree with your take on Lincoln, FDR? another Socialist, look at all those handouts he gave can you say Barack? tee hee!
I think people would get a lot better idea of the greatness of Lincoln when they become more knowledgeable about the nature of his Confederate opponents. Lincoln’s actions look a whole lot better and milder when compared to the unlawful tyranny of Jefferson Davis. Lincoln gets condemned for arresting a bridge burner in Maryland while the Tyrant of Richmond is somehow supposed to get a pass for hanging bridge burners in Tennessee. I care a lot less about the few rabble rousing politicians Lincoln inconvenienced in Maryland than the thousands that Davis imprisoned in Tennessee without a trial.