Absent Lincoln, there’d be no United States in its present form. I’m always curious what a person who views Lincoln as the “worst” considers what a viable alternative to him would’ve been and the consequences of such.
That is likely true, but you can't use a future event to justify past misconduct. Perhaps a rape produces a pregnancy which becomes a wonderful human being that saves millions. It still does not justify the rape.
I’m always curious what a person who views Lincoln as the “worst” considers what a viable alternative to him would’ve been and the consequences of such.
Well the "worst" part is his starting a war that killed 750,000 people directly, and possibly another 2 million indirectly, as well as destroying the original foundational principle of our own government (that people have a right to independence) and establishing Washington DC as a seat of power that was never intended by the Founders. States rights have been effectively revoked, and their sovereignty has been surrendered.
The overbearing Federal leviathan was more or less the consequence of Lincoln usurping for his government more powers than the Federal government was ever intended to have.
Add to this the corruption and influence trading his government established, and it pretty much becomes the root cause of most of the problems we are facing nowadays.
Lincoln not only got a lot of people killed needlessly, he created the Federal monster with which we have to deal today. People blame Wilson, but it really started with Lincoln.