Hero...Lincoln knew a divided US would invite an invasion by Britain and/or France.
You don't save a nation by killing almost a million people.
The ****** started a shooting war by breaking the truce at Ft Sumter and many Americans died in his dirty war.
I guess you haven't read any biographies of Lincoln; he felt the survival of the nation was worth the sacrifice and he was right.
He also felt the survival of the nation depended on getting rid of the negro presence in the US. He was right...
The issue of slavery is used as an excuse of the war because it lends some kind of moral justification. If you ask any uneducated American why the war was fought they will revert to what they were taught in Jr High School and say "to free the slaves". That is a lie.
The great debates over slavery prior to the war was no more than political posturing.
It had to do with political power by the parties.
Slavery was legal on the Federal level in the US prior to the war, during the war and for almost a year after the war. However, it was up to the states if they wanted to do it or not.
The issue was really over political power in the expansion western states. If a state was to be admitted slave then it was going to be dominated by the Democrats. If it was to be admitted free then it would be dominated by the Republicans.
The Southern Democrats opposed any new state to be admitted free because it would give more power to the already majority northern Republicans.
It is similar to the discussion nowadays to admit DC and or Puerto Rico as a state because it will give more power in Congress to the Democrats.
The South did not not want the Republicans to have more power because there was a history of the Northerners using the power of the Federal government to steal money from export cash rich Democrat South.