A tyrant is an oppressive, harsh, arbitrary person. That definition fits the typical slave owner, but not the man who courageously and righteously freed those enslaved. Indirectly defending the institution of slave owning with slams of Lincoln as a man of many poor decisions and poor choices is truly perverse thinking. Was stopping human rights abuse really a poor choice? I disagree with those who need to disparage Honest Abe by characterizing his presidency as one of cruel motives and without just cause.

Although he did go too far on some measures (such as curbing some civil liberties), Abraham Lincoln was certainly not a tyrant. He did not kill millions of people or destroy his country or others (in fact he kept the Union together). I would rather have Lincoln any day as president than George W. Bush.

Since I was born in Kentucky, it pains me to say this, but yes I believe Lincoln went far out of bounds, especially threatening to imprison Supreme Court Justice Taney for disagreeing with him. But if you or I were married to a wild harridan like he was, we'd fly a little sideways too.

He was the head of state of a nation tearing itself apart. His job, as he and others saw it was to preserve that nation. He took expedient, sometimes uncaring, even cruel steps. Tyrant? In the purest and most hair-splitting sense of the word, yes. In the sense that as the leader of a nation at war he strove to protect it and in so doing violated some civil rights, no.

Good heavens yes. Read my comments on this ass elsewhere on this site. I don't have the time or patience to rewrite it all.

Undecided. I would say no, but that assumes that his starting the Civil War was due to a benevolent sense of what was good for the nation as a whole. He started an unnessary war in my opinion; the North would have survived just fine without the South. It is probable that, politically, he just didn't want his name to go down as the guy who let the country split in half. I don't hate him as much as some do, but I don't study the Civil War as much as those people.

I also feel that the word, TYRANT is a dramatic word to use when referring to the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Poor choices do not make for a tyrant of a president. I personally do not think I know anyone who could have ran this country during this man's presidency. It had to of been so difficult. I couldn't even imagine.