This website has a more negative take on Lincoln than I like. However, I didn't know how strongly Lincoln supported industrialization and economic development, and how he pushed policies that encouraged industrialization. This is in stark contrast to Thomas Jefferson, who thought that we should be a nation of farmers. Initially, we were.
I am watching the movie Lincoln for the third time. This film gave me a more favorable impression of Lincoln.
The most common criticism of Lincoln that I tend to agree with is that he was President during one of the bloodiest wars in our history. Although the exact number is not clear, somewhere between 650,000 and 750,000 people died as a result of the war.
Although the South fired the first shot at Fort Sumter, Lincoln's cabinet had discussed evacuating the garrison to avoid war with the South. Instead, Lincoln decided to provision the garrison rather than evacuate it. He sent supplies but initially no additional troops or weapons. The Confederates chose to attack the fort before the supply expedition arrived, beginning the armed conflict.
Many people have argued that Lincoln could have avoided war by accepting Southern secession temporarily and attempting to negotiate reunification later. Although slavery was a just cause, Lincoln said that if he could restore the Union without freeing a single slave, he would do so.
Lincoln made it clear in his inaugural speech that he would not allow the South to peacefully secede from the Union. He compared the Union to a contract that all parties were bound to.
So it is easy to view Lincoln as a man who was prepared to risk a bloody war rather than negotiate.
Lincoln said that people think that he controlled events, but that, in fact, events controlled him.
He also made statements indicating that he believed Blacks and Whites were not equal, and at one point explicitly said that he favored Whites occupying a superior position.
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