Read the documented evidence of Lincoln's three month power trip before public opinion forced him to call Congress back into session. You know the ship building, the $2,000,000 'loan' from the US Treasury, the 75,000 volunteers, all using an outdated Act that Washington himself would not have used in that case.
That's not an issue for you?
Part of the Neo-Confederate revisionism is blaming Lincoln for modern liberalism--the silliest thing anyone could have come up with.
BTW, I'm reading a very good book right now, called "Battle Cry of Freedom", by James M. McPherson. You should check it out. It's very balanced--in fact, the title itself comes from a popular song of the era that had the same tune but different lyrics in the North and in the South. The only common factor is that the chorus of both versions had the words "shout the Battle Cry of Freedom."
Only problem is you have to drop the new-fangled pretense that the war was about "states' rights" and just come to terms that it was about slavery. If you can do that, and just forget the silly pride in a "Confederate heritage" that no one here can define or even explain, the book is a wonderful introduction to this great socio-political watershed of the American experience.