There where over 100 countries between 1800=1899 who abolished slavery and we where one of the only ones who had our federal government declare war on it's own people to do it. Lincoln didn't care about equality as much as he cared about keep the union intact. This in essence equates to Lincoln pulling back the plunger on a pinball machine that has never stopped since he started. The fed was only emboldened by the fact that half a country stood up to them and they won. The civil war was far from that it was the rape of and murder of southern Americans who believed in a different set of ideals. Not to mention the proliferation of wealth that was taken out of the south by the north to fund this little power trip. I do not condone nor support slavery in any way shape or form but declaring war and handling things the way our fed did back then was the wrong way to handle it. I prefer my presidents to be complete badasses who look an assassin in the face and then beat the shit out of them.
http://history1800s.about.com/od/crimesanddisasters/ss/failed-assassinations_2.htm . President Andrew Jackson, perhaps the most combative American president ever, not only survived an assassination attempt, he tried to assault the man who had tried to shoot him.
On January 30, 1835, Andrew Jackson visited the U.S. Capitol to attend the funeral of a member of Congress. While on his way out of the building a man named Richard Lawrence stepped out from behind a pillar and fired a flintlock pistol. The gun misfired, making a loud noise but not firing a projectile.
As shocked spectators looked on, Lawrence pulled out another pistol and again pulled the trigger. The second pistol also misfired, again making a loud, though harmless, noise.
Jackson, who had survived countless violent encounters, one of which left a pistol ball in his body that wasn't removed for decades, flew into a rage. As several people grabbed Lawrence and wrestled him to the ground, Jackson reportedly struck the failed assassin several times with his cane.
Edit: they definitely do not make democrats like that anymore.