I used to really be down on Lincoln because of the war between the states. He stomped all over the Constitution and he decreed that a state which voluntarily joined the union couldn't voluntarily leave the union.
But once you dig into the motivations of Lincoln, it's difficult not to have a bit of sympathy for his reasoning.
Lincoln didn't wage war on the south to end slavery. He waged war on the south in order to end an institution that had dumped vast numbers of Africans into America's western european society.
The transcripts of the Lincoln/Douglas debates explains Lincoln better than anything else.
Lincoln wanted slavery abolished and he wanted the slaves sent back to Africa where they belonged,...and out of *here*.
He was right.
Slavery had corrupted the demographic fabric of America,...and you can see the long term result of it today.
If John Wilkes Booth hadn't killed him, America would be a very different place today,...and Liberia would be much more populated.
