Honest Abe was a Tyrant

Yes, you read the title correctly. And yes, I am fully aware that this is a perfect excuse to hate me. But, it's a historically accurate title for President number 16. Very soon after Lincoln took office, he sent supplies to Fort Sumter, even though he had promised he wouldn't to South Carolina's governor, which forced the Confederates to act on their threat to fire if they were sent. Just reading this little fact makes it plain that Lincoln was looking for an excuse to invade, and it shows that he was at least partly responsible for the death of over half a million Americans. He began the invasion without calling Congress into session until long after the first major battle. I've read excuses that he didn't have enough time, but it was three months into the war that he finally did it. Since several battles had been fought at that point, he knew that they would never vote against war after blood was shed. One of his most well-known crimes was suspension of habeas corpus. Although the Constitution allows it, it's only in the case of rebellion, which my previous post shows was not going on. He threw many newspaper editors into prison for opposing the war, and shut down many others. Most were in prison for saying things far less harsh than what modern people often say about George W. Bush. Imagine the outcry if HE began shutting down opposing papers, magazines, etc. on charges of "treason." Although this also happened in the Confederacy, it was only very late in the war and they had to deal with actual, armed internal opposition. Lincoln said that if a group of men were discussing his policies and one kept silent, that counted as a crime. Another brilliant, unconstitutional idea of his was the draft. Now, again, this happened in the Confederacy a bit earlier than in the Union, but I don't know anything about their Constitution. Oh, I forgot to mention that a huge import tariff was raised before the war, and he threatened to invade any state that didn't raise it. All the tax money went, you guessed it, up North. Not a penny was spent on the South. Also, Lincoln supported the infamous Gen. Sherman's policy of burning every other town and looting everyone. Look what the "best government ever created" was doing. Acting like a tyrant!