“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. - A. Lincoln”
And yet, Abe said he was willing to do just that if it meant preserving the Union. Go figure.
Lincoln refused to recognize that a regional minority had the right to destroy the Union established by the “people of the United States,” not by the States, or even by the people of the states. The “people of the United States” was the only group with the legitimate power of dissolving the Union.
Lincoln denied human freedoms to nobody. The seceding states could have returned to the Union at any time. Prior to the full implementation of the Emancipation Proclamation they could have returned and kept their slaves (although Congress would have had some input on this).
During Lincoln’s conference with Stephens in 1865 he said that states could return to the Union as long as they accepted the freeing of the slaves and the national authority as it had existed before the war. What human freedoms or civil rights was such a position denying the people of those states?