[Non-Sequitur]

I think the historical record, and not just wishful political party thinking, reveals that Lincoln was the first "big government" president.

Y'all keep calling him that but Lincoln never interjected the government into society the way Jefferson Davis did. Would you call him the "bigger government" president?

He certainly enhanced the imperial powers of the oval office, and presidents such as Wilson, FDR, Johnson and Clinton benefited greatly from the precedents he set

How, exactly, did he do that? What precedents are you speaking of?

[bigunreal]

I think the southern states had a right to secede, just as I think any people have the right to choose whom they want to govern them. Consent of the governed should be an inalienable concept to true lovers of liberty. Because I'm critical of Lincoln, doesn't naturally follow that I am enthralled with Jefferson Davis, or would defend anything he did or might have done.

Until Lincoln came along, most presidents allowed the system of checks and balances to work. Lincoln's inflexible fixation with the "sacred" nature of the union of states was directly responsible for the deaths of 620,000 Americans. He suspended the writ of habeous corpus and threw thousands of political opponents into jail, without charges or a trial. He shut down scores of critical newspapers. When the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court objected vehemently to his suspension of the writ of habeous corpus, Lincoln threatened to have him arrested as well.

Remember, you and I and all living Americans have been indoctrinated, from the time we were very young, into the mythical concept of "Honest Abe." The fact that Lincoln was a wonderful writer and left behind some beautiful phrases certainly helped in the building of that myth. The problem is that in reality he was a tyrannical dictator who clearly believed that any means-including the rape, pillage and plunder of southern women and children-were justified in order to achieve his goal of "saving the union."

Look, as I said before, I know I'm in the minority here. If if makes you feel better to believe in the myth of Lincoln, please don't let me stop you. America certainly needs heroes.