[billbears]

Exactly -- a byproduct of liberalism and a totally sloppy attempt to rewrite history.

And exactly how is it rewriting history? I just hope they tape it. I want a copy. Sounds like cracks are starting to show at the church of abe....

[stainlessbanner]

Lincoln's actions:

1. Illegal appropriation of funds to build weapons (no Congressional consent)
2. Illegal blocking of Southern ports (considered an act of war, no Congressional consent obtained)
3. Suspension of habeas corpus (again, without Congressional consent)
4. Demanding state governors conscript 75,000 soldiers (no Congressional consent)
5. Usurpation of power
6. Deportation/Colonization plan for slaves in Liberia/Panama/Haiti
7. Shutting down of newspapers and other outlets
8. Refusal to trade Union POWs with Confederate POWs

Lincoln's results:

1. Creation of unprecendented centralized national government
2. Essentially dissolved state sovereignty
3. Creation of centralization national bank system
4. Reconstruction resulted in one of the greatest failures in American history
5. 9% Union and 12% Confederate POWs died in prison camps because Lincoln refused to exchange prisoners
6. Imprisonment of over 14,000 civilians by military police for "alleged" crimes that never existed.
7. Shutdown of nearly 300 newspaper and media outlets that voiced concern over the administration's policies.
8. 620,000 American Dead. More than all other American military conflicts combined.
9. Nearly 500,000 American Wounded.
10. Billions of dollars in war costs, reconstruction, and veteran benefits.
11. Destruction of thousands upon thousands of livestock and agricultural land, primarily in the South.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Waste of time. Read

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Tells you more about the politics of the Civil War than you probably ever suspected. And of course the politics precedes the military actions, for they determine the objectives and the limitations of the military actions.

All very well to belabor Lincoln for not being more militant against slavery; without the adherence to the Union of slaveholding border states the Union would almost certainly have failed to carry the day - and slavery would not only have continued where it was but would have continued to expand.

But was Lincoln a racist? Practically everyone in America was racist. What is certain is that those determined to sit in judgement of their ancestors are self righteous and arrogant. Their ancestors were what they themselves would have been had they lived in that time, with the same upbringing, education, and peer influences. A fact which the "liberal" cannot admit.