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DiLorenzo calls Lincoln a dictator yet Lincoln never did a way with an entire branch of government the way Davis did. The confederate constitution clearly requires a supreme court yet Davis never appointed one, never nominated a single justice, never referred a single matter for judicial review. But that should not be a surprise, since Davis once said that the only test of the constitutionality of a law is if it did what it was intended to do.

"Q: One of the key items DiLorenzo focused on was his suggestion that the debate between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton was won for Hamilton by Lincoln. Was he wrong?"

"A: Yes, I think he's wrong. I think Jefferson and Hamilton fundamentally agreed, and Jefferson is the one DiLorenzo will pick as being on his side – that the American Union began not with the Constitution but with the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson said so in a letter to the board of governors.

It seems to me you are ducking the real question here. The issue of contention between Jefferson and Hamilton - to which Metcalf surely is referring - has nothing to do with the beginnings of the American Union, but rather was over whether the United States would be a loose confederation with very limited central government or a federation with a strong central government, and whether it should be a primarily agricultural society or develop a strong industrial base. There is a well-known quote from Jefferson, which I can't cite at the moment, in which he expresses his preference that the U.S. remain an agricultural society because much industry would lead to large cities housing masses of underpaid laborers in squalid slums and resulting in corruption (presumably of morals) as was the case in Europe.

This is the argument that may be seen to have been won by Lincoln for Hamilton.