If you favor a large centralized federal govt ...then Lincoln is your man. But even then he ran a poor war campaign. His mismanagement of the war caused needless suffering and death.
OTOH, if you favor States rights then Lincoln was one of the worst...if not the worst President of all time.
“OTOH, if you favor States rights then Lincoln was one of the worst..”
Rights of the individual triumphs any States rights. The slavers of the Confederacy lost when they stuck to enslaving their fellow man and refuse to give freedom to the slaves. They deserve worse than what President Lincoln dished out. F em.
Only if you believe that the only states that had any rights protected under the Constitution were those that were leaving. What about the states that were staying? Didn't they have any state's rights?
OTOH, if you favor States rights then Lincoln was one of the worst...if not the worst President of all time.
To put Lincoln's Civil War conduct into context, I think we need to look at Jefferson Davis's heavy handed reign in the Confederacy. I think Lincoln comes out much better in the comparison.