Some people do think that way. But consider the history 50 years later. The 16th amendment was passed to allow a direct tax on income in the US. Lincoln didn't bother with such trivia even though he took the oath of office to up hold and defend the Constitution Apparently he didn't think that promise was worth anything. He sort of set the standard for ignoring the main basis for our government, much like what we get routinely today.' People should interpret the law, especially the Constitution, then they will be much better informed when it is time to vote. I recommend you consider it yourself.
In time of war, the courts rule in favor of the government overreaching its constitutional authority. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korematsu_v._United_States Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944),[1] was a landmark United States Supreme Court case concerning the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II regardless of citizenship. In a 6-3 decision, the Court sided with the government,[2] ruling that the exclusion order was constitutional. Six of eight Roosevelt nominees sided with Roosevelt. The lone Republican nominee, Owen Roberts, dissented. The opinion, written by Supreme Court justice Hugo Black, held that the need to protect against espionage outweighed Fred Korematsu's individual rights, and the rights of Americans of Japanese descent.
This is how I know it. "A house divided upon itself cannot stand" trumped freeing the slaves. The slaves were freed by proclamation only after the North was badly losing the war. Realize Gettysburg is in Pennsylvania, which is a wee bit north of D.C.
When I was a young fellow, I worked for one the Japanese interned about eight years after his internment was over. We were discussing it one night returning from delivering a load of his produce in Portland. He was telling me what it was like and how it totally pissed him off, when I told him what I thought. Sabo, (Sabo Akita) I don't think you would have survived living with the people that were told dayly the mission was to kill Japs! I still remember Bull Halsey answering a guestion about what he was going to do next at a fund raiser, " I am going to take my fleet to Tokyo and kill Japs!" Bad stuff it was but I really think many would not have survived out in the open in that day.
Contrasted with W, who right after 9/11 held a service at the National Cathedral with an assortment of religious "priests" (for lack of a better word), including a Muslim.
"Abraham Lincoln fucking listened." - Frederick Douglass, via Drunk History Vol. 5 (paraphrased) [video=youtube;ipV2u-MxlFc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipV2u-MxlFc[/video]
Lincoln met the most challenging crisis moment in our nation's history with great wisdom, courage and a heart for the union as such. He was a man without peer and one of our two greatest Presidents.
Heck Lincoln was an advocate of the high Tariffs on the machines the south needed. They were being forced to pay way over the top for machines the North made due to the Tariffs on imports. Shoot the man went against the Constitution in about every way known. Suspended Habeas Corpus, tax income even though a direct tax is prohibited in the Constitution, quartered troops in the homes of civilians. Perhaps the worse thing was his blatant 1st amendment violations Where in the Constitution does it say he ever has the power to censor newspapers? Where did he divine the power to go to war with a State just because they don't want to be in the US? Kill a million countryman?? Holy Jesus, the man thought he was god all mighty! http://www.illinoisfirstamendmentcenter.com/history.php Here is a point of interest. The Supreme Court upheld the Individual mandate in the Obama Care law, declaring the penalty levied on a person that does not have healthcare a tax. Congress can make taxes, but this tax has to be a direct tax since it is levied on an individual. Direct taxes are specifically prohibited, that is why the 16th amendment was passed, to permit the income tax. But only the income tax was covered, the healthcare tax has to be in direct violation of the Constitution. Some young fella should challenge this law forcing you to buy insurance or pay the "TAX". Show Obama he isn't Lincoln, you won't stand for it.
No disrespect, but you have no sense of history. Lincoln must be judged based on the time he was President and the culture of those times- not yours at this time. And no great man is without fault. His task was greater than any you can even imagine and he governed as he saw fit to preserve the union and ultimately ending slavery (although not his original intent). He stands near the very top of the greatest leaders in all of world history and his place there cannot be denied.
The Emancipation Proclamation escalated the Civil War and led to the battle of Gettysburg in May 1863. To deny that is revisionist history. The role of slavery played a huge role in the beginning of the war, too, and it became what the war was about after Lincoln bravely issued the EP.
