I think those modern souls who despise Lincoln (either for his take on race or his take on federalism - we have many of the latter on FR) all make the same mistake. They apply a modern yardstick to an era that that passed long before the yardstick was manufactured.
George Will once described Babe Ruth, as the greatest baseball player of them all, in a way that also applies to Lincoln or Washington or many great people of bygone times. Will said it's futile trying to compare athletes who lived through different epochs saying a great one of the past could not compete in later eras. What makes sense is to compare them to their contemporaries. Of Ruth he said: Ruth was Mt. Everest in Kansas.
I believe Lincoln had a goal and saw it as his duty to preserve the United States. I also believe he had problems thrust at him from a menagerie of ostriches that made those of Franklin Roosevelt seem a cake walk by comparison.
The fact that Lincoln functioned at all put him high above most of us on the pedestal. IMHO, along the way, Lincoln became first among equals in the American pantheon.
I appreciate your insight.
Thank you for a reasoned, responsible overview of Lincoln.
Lots of kooks around here refuse to admire what is admirable in an American hero like Lincoln.