[chrisser]

Given what a weakened state a split country would have placed us in as we moved into the industrial age, given the force for good that a united and powerful America has been in the world since Appomattox, and considering even his most brazen suspensions of Constitutional rights were temporary, and resulted in no one swinging from the gallows for their opposition to the war, I must support the actions of this great President who was ultimately motivated by love of country, not lust for power.

Isn't this a nice way of saying that the ends justify the means?

And, if so, I submit that the forces Lincoln put into motion, while perhaps partially freeing the slaves (only to put them into Jim Crow for decades, and then the fed plantation afterwards), have come to make slaves of all of us - to a tyrannical federal government and it's debt.

By that historical measure, I come to the opposite conclusion from the author.

[central_va]

The Cruel Oppressor™ had a lot of willing help. Meet the "Torch of the North".

[Hardastarboard]

One comment I read once that I thought made sense was that say what you will of whether Lincoln was justified in making war on the South, the real issue is that he felt he had to make war. In other words, his real failure was in not ending slavery with diplomacy. The author of the article I read mentioned that several other contemporary countries, including Britain, our Mother country, had stopped slavery without going to war over it.

[Non-Sequitur]

And, if so, I submit that the forces Lincoln put into motion...have come to make slaves of all of us - to a tyrannical federal government and it's debt.

How so? Specifics please.

[RasterMaster]

Inaction by DUmocrat James Buchanan allowed unprovoked attack against the United States before Lincoln was even inaugurated. Forces were mustered against freedom and they counted on having a fellow secessionist sympathizer like Buchanan giving them free reign. By the time Lincoln was in office secessionists had already threw away any claims of living as "peaceful neighbors" in a divided nation through firing against fellow Americans. Secessionist attempts to re-write history and feed the DUmocrat myth fall flat once again.

Any arguments against the period resulting from reconstruction would fall at the feet of another DUmocrat, Andrew Johnson who allowed the slaveocracy to regroup, rebuild, and continue terrorizing long after the last shots had been fired against them by the free states.

Those that blame Lincoln do so while turning a blind eye to the real tyrants like Woodrow Wilson, FDR, and Lyndon Johnson while giving a pass to Jimmy Peanut, BJ Clinton and King Hussien for growing government and stifling freedom.