As the author of "Apprentice killers: The War of Lincoln and Davis," I believe that a man must be evaluated against the backdrop of his own time, not the present.

Yes, your negatives of Lincoln against the backdrop of the present are true. But in his own day, Lincoln was more or less a moderate desperately trying to save an exploding attempted democracy. He was just the opposite of so many "Republicans" today that are willing to throw the nation under the bus for short-term political advantage.