" After voting I stopped by the debate museum to read the new sign. The full explanation of the debate is the first part and is great. Sets the time, the place, the sequence, no judgments just the facts. There is not getting around it, the last paragraph,the word "qualify" is a judgmental, editorial comment and has no business appearing on the sign. "

" Lincoln deserves his place in the history books -- he was the most influential and profound President. He deserves his place as the greatest President for preserving the Union.

This is an old arguement that Lincoln might not have always been anti-slavery. In the end, Lincoln did bring about a dramatic change in our country. Unfortunately, most Americans are ignorant of the change he brought about.

Lincoln offered a trade-off. He initiated a greatly needed social change in American society, but in doing so, he moved the country very far from it's origin. That, not the war, is why American history is divided at the Civil War.

See, as our Founding Fathers desired, the Federal government was subordinate, or at most equal, to the individual states that represented their populations. Remember, a teenager in 1860 listened to his elders who remembered the Revolution -- although they were few and very old, the stories of colonial times and splitting from England were well remembered. In that context, it was natural for the states to believe they had the right to leave the Union.

But this is much more than a justification of succession on the grounds of states rights. It is all about the relationship of the federal/national government and the people. In political circles this is known as Lockean (hence my monkier) and Hobbesian ideology.

Our Founding Fathers believed in a Lockean government where the people had the ultimate authority over the government -- this included the exlicate right to revolution. Lincoln brought about a Hobbesian government where the people were destined to hope for the good will of their government. Elected or not, the people could not use coercian or threat of dissolution, as was done in 1776, in the post-Lincoln era.

Thus we can thank Lincoln for the transition for creating the national government and discarding the federal government.

While Lincoln accomplished many things, foremost preserving the Union and laying the groundwork for equal rights, Lincoln also oversaw the largest increase (or more aptly the creation of) the national government. It was a trade-off. Suspending civil liberties, spying on citizens, illegal detention, unbalanced budgets, and waging unpopular wars are not new problems -- these were all things Lincoln initiated.

The results of his actions were, overall, positive, and hence his place as our greatest president, but there were problems -- the least of which was his historical position on slavery. The real problems have been forgotten by the average American in their ignorance of the political philosophy of our Founding Fathers, despite the average American's zealous reverance of all things related to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. "