I have not seen Lincoln yet, but I hope to at least get it on video. I will say though, that I think Lincoln was a great leader, and his legacy has become very mythologized, but negatively and positively. Lincoln expressed his moral opposition to the institution of slavery, many times, both in his personal writings, and in speeches, but he did not campaign for full abolition for most of his career. The reason is that, he simply did not know how to go about abolishing slavery outright, and even though he felt that slavery was evil, to him, preserving the nation was always the first priority. He campaigned heavily to stop the expansion of slavery into the North, but felt that aggressive attempts to end slavery would result in a civil war (which happened anyway). His election came at a time of a strong revival of the abolitionist movement, brought about largely by the Dredd Scott Case. This abolitionist sentiment, and the increasing economic power and population of the free states, due to the industrial revolution, are what got him elected.
The Southern states seceded because they felt that he was conspiring to end slavery, and they feared the increasing economic and political power of the free states, within the Federal government; Slave labor was crucial to the economics of the agrarian South. So yeah, I feel that Lincoln was a great leader in many ways, and while he was not a saint (who is?) He did personally oppose slavery as a moral wrong, and he did campaign to stop its expansion, and he did campaign very hard, and more than any other individual, for the passage of the 13th amendment, which abolished slavery permanently. He does deserve the moniker of 'Great Emancipator' and contrary to the notion that he was a war monger, it was the Confederacy that fired the first shots.
