[LexBaird]

Do you admire him more for defeating the South or freeing the slaves?

This is an "either/or" question that cannot be answered so simply.

Anti-slavery was a big part of the platform he was elected under, but it was not the whole of the man. He did not ask for the war, but he had the sworn duty, as President, to preserve the Nation. To that end, he bent all his efforts, and with the hindsight of today, I thank the Lord it was preserved. The evils of the 20th century would have crushed a divided America.

I admire him for doing his best to serve his Nation in the job he was elected to do. A lesser man would have broken.

[dwd1]

Chang Kai Shek, Diem, Gorbachev, the Caesar's in Rome, Charles Taylor, the Shah of Iran, Emperor Maximilian, Czar Nicholas II, Kaiser Wilhelm, Santa Ana, Napoleon, the Stuarts in England...History is full of persons who because of internal or external conflicts, lost their nation...Lesser men did fail...

[wardaddy]

He did not ask for the war,

Many of course would argue that.

[stainlessbanner]

but he had the sworn duty, as President, to preserve the Nation.

He had the sworn duty to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.