Criticism of Abraham Lincoln

Before, during, and after his presidency —and continuing into the present — Abraham Lincoln has faced criticism from multiple perspectives: Confederates and their sympathizers for abolishing slavery and revisionist historical views of The Confederacy, use of centralized power and censorship, suspension of Habeas Corpus, perceptions of Lincoln as not a genuine abolitionist, treatment of Native Americans, not accepting full equality for Blacks, and arguments Lincoln increased Civil War tensions and or tensions leading up to The War.

Anarcho-Capitalist Economist and Historian Thomas DiLorenzo, who's been described as a Neo-Confederate, heavily criticizes him for First amendment violations (such as suspension of Habeas corpus), and expansion of government powers in his book The Real Lincoln.

Zinn argues that Lincoln provoked hostilities by attempting to repossess Fort Sumter in South Carolina, framing this as the spark that started the conflict rather than the Confederate attack on the fort - Zinn argues avoiding military confrontation and not resupplying Fort Sumter, would potentially allow peaceful secession to prevent The War and let class struggles among workers in both the North and South. He claims enslaved people’s self-emancipation through flight and strikes as the real force ending slavery.

Ron Paul suggested Congress should've bought slaves and release them, like the British did:

"You buy the slaves and release them. How much would that cost compared to [...] 600,000 Americans?"

American Historian and Socialist activist Howard Zinn in his book ‘A People's History of the United States’ argues Lincoln wasn’t a genuine abolitionist but rather a pragmatic politician who ended slavery as means of preserving the union and benefiting Northern elites.

Zinn describes Lincoln's stance on slavery as

"It was Abraham Lincoln who combined perfectly the needs of business, the political ambition of the new Republican party, and the rhetoric of humanitarianism. He would keep the abolition of slavery not at the top of his list of priorities, but close enough to the top so it could be pushed there temporarily by abolitionist pressures and by practical political advantage."

Zinn also brings up Wendell Phillips' perspective on Lincoln.

"If the telegraph speaks truth, for the first time in our history the slave has chosen a President of the United States. . . . Not an Abolitionist, hardly an antislavery man, Mr. Lincoln consents to represent an antislavery idea. A pawn on the political chessboard, his value is in his position; with fair effort, we may soon change him for knight, bishop or queen, and sweep the board."

Critics commonly bring up Lincoln's letter to Horace Mann as the primary reason of why Lincoln wasn't a genuine abolitionist.

“I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution.

The sooner the national authority can be restored, the nearer the Union will be ‘the Union as it was.’ If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it;

and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.”

Nikole Hannah-Jones went even further, describing Lincoln as a “political opportunist” who believed “Black people are the obstacle to national unity”.

“Anti-black racism runs in the very DNA of this country, as does the belief, so well articulated by Lincoln, that black people are the obstacle to national unity.”

Lincoln supported the Corwin Amendment, which aimed to constitutionally protect slavery in states where it already existed, and he expressed no objection to it in his first inaugural address as implied constitutional law. He opposed slavery’s expansion into new territories but believed the federal government lacked authority to interfere with it in existing slave states, focusing instead on gradual abolition through political containment.

Abraham Lincoln did not support for equality for Blacks.

"I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races ... I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people..."

After the Dakota War of 1862, the U.S. government punished the Dakota people by removing them from Minnesota and taking their land through federal laws passed by congress, Lincoln signed federal laws making them official and enforceable.

Lincoln approved the execution of 39 Dakota men following the Dakota War of 1862, which resulted in the largest mass execution in U.S. history.

In April 1861, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War to allow military authorities to detain individuals deemed a threat to public safety.

Chief Justice Roger B. Taney issued Ex parte Merryman, challenging Lincoln's ability to suspend the writ of Habeas Corpus in Maryland.

Zinn saw Lincoln as a representative of the rising Northern capitalist order who opposed slavery while still supporting a system of free labor, private property, industrial growth.

Zinn argued that the North's role in the Civil War wasn't driven by a moral commitment to ending slavery, but rather its own political and economic interests, with Lincoln serving as a means of achieving those goals.

The northern elite wanted economic expansion - free land, free labor, a free market, a high protective tariff for manufacturers, a bank of The United States. The slave interests opposed all that; they saw Lincoln and the Republicans as making continuation of their pleasant and prosperous way of life impossible in the furture.

Anarcho-Capitalist economist Murray Rothbard argued that the Civil War enabled Republicans to enact a "statist program" including tariffs, subsidies, and the National Banking Act, which he viewed as important steps toward later federal economic centralization.

Lincoln refused to condemn The Act publicly, Lincoln wrote in a private letter: "I confess I hate to see the poor creatures hunted down... but I bite my lips and keep quiet."

When congressman Lincoln proposed to proposed to abolish slavery in The District of Columbia, he accompanied a section requiring local authorities to arrest and return fugitive slaves coming into Washington.

Criticism of Franklin D. Roosevelt

Criticism of Theodore Roosevelt

Criticism of Ronald Reagan