Will Lincoln go down in History,as America's Dictator President?

[Bill Richter]

Interesting that Jeff Davis did the same things that Lincoln did--except that Davis went to his Confederate Congress first and got their agreement by having them pass laws to that effect. Lincoln refused to call Congress in 1861 and acted most to the time by executive order. Then he asked Congress to rubber-stamp his actions. He did it year after year--no wonder Congress was so angry that Andrew Johnson thought he could do the same in 1865 with Reconstruction.

The big quarrel was that suspension of habeas corpus can be done but it is in Congress' section of the Constitution. Given that Lincoln had a more reasonable Congress to deal with--not so prone to quarrel over state rights--he should have acted as did Lincoln and Lincoln acted as did Davis. Surely Davis was not a better politician! At least that has been history's verdict on him.

Maybe Lincoln's Congress was something else that historians have neglected--more unreasonable than the Confederate version? More oriented to state rights than we know? More racist that can be admitted?Uh, oh, now there is a problem.

To quote Alphonso Taft of the famous Ohio Republican family in a letter to Sen. Ben Wade, in 1864: "It is to be regretted that history should have to tell so many lies as it will tell, when it shall declare Lincoln's intrigues and foolishness models of integrity and wisdom, his weakened and wavering indecision and delay far-sighted statesmanship, and his blundering usurpation of legislative power Jacksonian courage and Roman patriotism, but one cannot help it. History goes with the powers that be."

Immodestly, I refer you all to my book, Sic Semper Tyrannis, the chapter entitled, How Did Anakin Skywalker Become Darth Vader?: The Abraham Lincoln John Wilkes Booth Knew.