Well, the same God who allowed the statistical improbability of Jefferson and Adams, the only two Prezs who signed the Declaration (and the two who made it all work) die miraculously on the same day; not only the same day; but the fourth of July, the day the Declaration was celebrated, but the same day on the fourth of July on the Jubilee Year anniversary (fiftieth) of the signing of the Declaration.
This seeming supernatural fact was noted by Lincoln in extemporaneous remarks made by him from the White House on July 9th, 1863 -- whereas he was trying to see God's hand in the recent "victories" at Gettysburg on the 3rd of July and Vicksburg on the 4th - trying to see if the good Lord was still on the side of those who sought to free the slaves and against those who sought to eat the bread of another man's toil.
So, how ironic, or more statistically prudent, to note that Lincoln himself was shot on Good Friday after Lee's surrender the Palm Sunday previous, and mourned on Easter Sunday. God honors those who honor Him. No amount of quacking or sniping at his good name will take away his greatness. As Stanton said of him: 'There lies the greatest leader the world has ever known". I daresay, he was the greatest -- and the immediate peace between North and South after his death proved that the country was united in the death of a good man who did not deserve to be murdered.
I hear that Doris Goodwin's new book (and Spielberg's new movie) on Lincoln makes the point that Lincoln was the architect of his own legacy -- fully aware of how good leaders are made great in posterity if they manipulate things their way. (Sounds more like a mea culpa for Clinton). Now, this is a neat historical and intellectual trick to play on Lincoln. It reminds me of some anti Christian seventies book called "The Passover Plot" that tried to say that Jesus was the architect of his own Messiahness, because Jesus knew all the prophecies related to the coming messiah and simply fulfilled them. (The Passover Plot of course, has to ignore prophecies like how Judas would be paid thirty pieces of silver and hang himself in Potter's field -- because they were entirely outside Christ's purview.) In the same manner Goodwin asserts Lincoln simply created his own image and legacy for the sake of his legacy. Again, part of Lincoln's iconic position was the fact of the date of his murder -- Good Friday. Goodwin's insane argument has to loop around itself and somehow account for this miraculous fact.
Anyway, Tolstoy called Lincoln "A Christ in miniature" and his assessment was spot on. Speilberg is on the wrong side of history on this one.
Had not 620,000 American citizens died as a result of his terror attacks in the South, he would not be remembered today.