Abraham Lincoln was probably our greatest president.
With the entire South and many northern Democrats against the war to preserve the Union, he persevered… and on the strength of great Union generals like Grant, Sherman and Sheridan, the US remained whole.
Many point to the deterioration of Confederate supplies as the reason the Union won, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard this mentioned as an advantage for the Confederacy:
The US Civil War was fought almost entirely in the South. Southerners were constantly messing with Union men and supplies while providing emotional and supply/housing support for the Confederates.
So while the North had more men and supplies, the South had home-field advantage.
Back to Lincoln:
He wrote in a letter that his #1 mission was to preserve the Union. If he could preserve the Union and allow the South to keep slavery, he would. And if he could abolish slavery and preserve the Union, he would. In other words, his prevailing objective was to keep the US intact, to end the southern rebellion.
At the end of the letter he proffered his personal wish that all men, everywhere, would be free.
That was a letter to Horace Greeley, a liberal journalist who had attacked Lincoln for not allowing the South to leave the US.
To learn more about our greatest president, search for the following online:
– Lincoln’s letter to Horace Greeley
– Lincoln’s letter to Union General Hooker
– Lincoln’s letter to General Grant
– The Gettysburg Address
Those should give you a decent handle on the type of leader Lincoln was.