Consider that Washington helped to birthed the country, Lincolin helped to preserve it.
Lincoln’s string was being pulled by the northern governors who wanted to stifle the south’s industrial growth. Slavery was a doomed institution and was only used as an after-thought to justify raping the south. Lincoln was weak for submitting. It can be noted that toward the end of the war when it became clear Lincoln was not going to punish the south with the evils of reconstruction the way the northern governors want it he was assassinated so a weaker puppet (Johnson) could implement the plan.
Lincoln set the stage for what we have today, centralized control.