mrorange211
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Lincoln oversaw the worst period in American history. 650,000 Americans died on his watch. He couldn't come up with peaceful solutions to anything. He trampled the constitution. He violated international law. He behaved as a dictator. He waged total war on his own people. He wasn't the worst president. He has some redeeming qualities, but it's sheer lunacy to call him a good president. It shows how easily we can be manipulated.
You're right. He wasn't a good president, he was a great one.
Lincoln made the decision to interpret the United States as perpetual, and ultimately it was he that ensured that the US would not break apart. If you believe Lincoln violated the Constitution, then you must also believe the same about Jackson, TR, FDR, Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, and W. He did what had to be done to preserve the union. He was not a compromising President on slavery like those before him, but he still proposed a constitutional amendment to guarantee slavery in Jan 1861 if other southern states would not secede.
Lincoln's foreign policy was successful because it kept other nations from entering the side of the CSA. The Trent Affair is a great example of what a great president must be: compromising. When the British proposed war, he immediately released the CSA diplomats he had captured. The ability of a president to see his wrongs and then correct them, all publicly, is a trait not easily found.
Lincoln issued the EP, which began the process towards the end of slavery which ultimately ended with the 13th.
He signed into law the Homestead Act, Morrill Act, and a bill that started the transcontinental RR.
His speeches are second to none: House-Divided speech, Gettysburg Address, first and second inaugural addresses
He had wagon loads of books delivered to the White House on military strategy and actually implemented some of his own strategies after he realized how useless McClellan was. Oh, and he came up with at least a part of the anaconda plan; kinda a big deal.
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