I agree with you.
I for one do not revere Abraham Lincoln. I think he began the destruction of federalism. I think he was in fact a tyrant.
Like you, I am speaking very specifically, not in any way endorsing either slavery or assassination.
(I think slavery could have and would have been ended through economic sanctions, without the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives, and without the damage to states’ rights.)
Agreed, but the time for doing that was decades ago and not when literally half the nation had its entire economy hardwired to the practice. And that was our fault for letting it GET that far, not the South’s. Had we drawn a line in the sand in the time of the 13 colonies the pro-slave states would have quickly cried uncle. By the time Sumter was shelled Lincoln had only two awful choices as the standing President: fight or surrender.
Its reminiscent of Ron Paul’s idea of issuing letters of marque to take out ISIS: great thing to do but wholly inadequate for the scale of the problem at hand.