Lincoln assumed somewhat despotic powers. The congress was happy to have him do it. Which congressman of the day would anyone choose to trade Lincoln for? What other national figure could one look to for guidance? Taney? What an inspiration that guy must have been.
My guess is Lincoln was first and foremost in his view that despotism is no way to run a railroad. The problem is in a real crisis, consensus has zero hope of getting anything done. I think he would be aghast at the centralization of powers today.
These days we could take a lesson from Lincoln on how to treat the judiciary.
"These days we could take a lesson from Lincoln on how to treat the judiciary."
Well, I can agree with that statement. I understand that when Lincoln suspended habeus corpus that Chief Justice Taney ruled him unconstitutional. It is said that Lincoln considered having Taney arrested, but didn't follow through. He simply ignored Taney. I believe Lincoln said that, "more rogues than honest men find shelter behind habeus corpus."
It is ironic that to "save the union", Lincoln had to deliberately violate the Constitution. I think that Lincoln was a consumate pragmatic politician that did whatever was expedient at the time. Is this greatness? Personally, I don't know. Does it make him bad? I don't know about that either.