I agree 100%.
I rate him as one of the worst presidents of all time but I have taken a lot of flak over that.
Almost everyone who doesn't think for himself believes Lincoln walked on water.
Lincoln presided over a war that left 600,000 dead and 400,000 wounded over a period of 4 years.
He did almost nothing to avoid the conflict or bring it to an early end.
He was a politician first and formost and usually made the choices that benefited him politically.
And he left the nation divided in ways that persist even today, over 150 years later.
That casualty rate was about 3% of the population at the time. when the population was less than 1/10 of the population today.
A war today with that rate of casualties would result in over 6 million dead and 4 million wounded.
Think how crazy people went over Vietnam with less than 60,000 US casualties.
How would they handle 10 million killed and wounded?
Almost everyone who doesn't think for himself believes that.
Seriously, sectionalism and hostility between south and north predates Lincoln by decades. If you want to find root cause of the animus you need look no further than the dhimmicrats of the day. Just like the current crop they were poor losers.
He did almost nothing to avoid the conflict or bring it to an early end.
He did everything except capitulate. Thank God he didn't.
Vlad to Bryanw92: ** “ Lincoln presided over a war that left 600,000 dead and 400,000 wounded over a period of 4 years.
He did almost nothing to avoid the conflict or bring it to an early end. “ **
Ah, no.
In early 1861, despite Lincoln’s promise that Confederates could not have war unless they themselves started it, and months before a single Confederate soldier was killed in battle with any Union force, and before any Union Army invaded a single Confederate state, Confederates were very busy provoking war by seizing Federal properties, threatening & firing on Union officials, then starting war at Fort Sumter, formally declaring war (May 6, 1861) and waging war in Union states.
For years Confederates could have ended Civil War at any time, on much better term than the Unconditional Surrender they received in April 1865, but Confederates insisted on fighting on and on until final, total defeat.
So they had only themselves to blame for the results.