Lincoln gave a speech in January 1848 about the Mexican war stating he his support for secession. Apparently that changed when he was in charge. He was a professional politician and as hypocritical as any of them.
“...Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better— This is a most valuable, — a most sacred right — a right, which we hope and belive, is to liberate the world...”
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mal:@field(DOCID+@lit(d0007400))
In the end we can’t count on men, much less the short sighted molds that we make for them.
We have to count on God. The spirit may be willing and yet the flesh is weak, and so at best we see a colossal detour in our plans. And if we don’t have the patience to make it through the detour, we’ll hang it up before we ever get where we wanted to get.