Lincoln was a white supremicist and one of this countries worst, most unconstitutional presidents.

1) The only way to judge people is in the context of the society in which they lived. It is unrealistic to expect people to completely reject the ideas instilled in them from the time they were young children. Even if I grant you that a line exists between racist and not racist (which there isn't, there is a heck of a lot of gray area) you still must account for that line moving as society and its ideals change. Lincoln was far in the clear with the line that existed at that time and could even hold his own today (just probably not in national level politics). A) Though the Southern government did not recognize the sovereignty of the Union over them, many people who were simpathetic to the Northern cause but living in the South did, as did the slaves. So while the slave owners did not think their slaves were legitimately freed, the slaves and others did and this legal grounding provided them the courage to break free. As for buying them and granting their freedom, by the time of the emancipation proclamation we were already deeply commited to war, which as you know is extremely expensive. For the Union to attempt to purchase every slave in the north and south would have been impossible. B) I would indeed have to work a lot harder to win this debate if you found that evidence. For now we will acknowledge that their intentions were good and the possibility existed for these people to live free from discrimination and debate the new argument later if evidence is found. Sound good? C) Your alternative would only have indicated a difference in which was Lincoln's top priority, his actions would have been the same because both winning the war and freeing the slaves were priorities and both were taken care of. If he had said your alternative it simply would have meant that the slaves were at the forefront of his mind rather than an secondary consideration. 2) The president's duties extend beyond simply upholding the constitution, if laws of the united states or actions of united states society fail to uphold the constitution or the standard of equal rights set forth by the constitution and other documents that contributed to the founding of our nation and establishment of government, then it is the responsibility of those in power to correct it. The south was trying to break the perpetual union and society was stomping on the rights of African Americans and neither the courts, Congress, or society made any attempt to stop this. It fell on Lincoln's shoulders to correct these so that in the long run the constitution could be upheld and strengthened, even if it meant in the short term it had to be violated. A) Lincoln was not the first to break from the constitution. His violations were probably more significant than those before him, but he was faced with a much more significant task. His violations, however, were miniscule next to FDR who has established the precedent for the violations we are seeing today. B) He advocated the policies that he thought were best for the United States as a whole. The South had to take a small hit for the country to get a huge gain and rather than try to work within that or propose compramise, they immediately overreacted and seceeded and told Lincoln his only choice was to give them up or go to war. C) Fighting it in Congress is not enough, maybe instead of fighting it they should have proposed compramises, or they could have fought it in the courts, or perhaps they could have tried to show northern citizens how they would be negatively effected by the south's plight so that northern congressmen would be simpathetic to them. Most other means were not even thought of, let alone exhausted. D) He did not make it powerful out of proportion, the intent was always that as soon as the threats died down and the South began to rebuild, things would go back to the way they were before. Lincoln, of course, was shot before that could happen and Johnson implimented his own rebuilding policy which made the increased power permanent, rather than temporary as Lincoln had desired.