[Razz]

I suspect your objection is more to Lincoln's actions during his first term.

NO!

Wasn't Lincoln a Saint? All the (modern0 history books tell us so! Never mind the suspension of habeas corpus, that he shut down any press that criticized his actions, arrested the Maryland Legislature so they couldn't vote on secession, implemented the first income tax in the U.S., implemented the first draft when he couldn't get any more volunteers to fight for his cause, allowed an unConstitutional secession of one section of a State while maintaining that States could not seced, 'freed' the slaves in the South while steadfastedly maintaining slavery in the Union and Union occupied territory, ad nauseum...

Not that Jefferson Davis was a saint either, but history, like current events, doesn't neatly fall into clearly demarcated black and white (pardon the pun) and all too often 'historians' write for their bias instead of for the Truth.

[Restorer]

Lincoln wan't anything close to a saint. OTOH, a saint would not have been able to preserve the Union, without which the North American continent would probably have suffered through a number of wars among contending states in the last 135 years. Also, without a strong United States, it is highly likely that all of Eurasia would have fallen to either the Axis or the Commies. In either case, the enormous combined resources of the Old World would probably have eventually overwhelmed the New.

So despite his many flaws I consider Lincoln to be by far the greatest American president, both for his actions at the time and his beneficient influence on subsequent history.