From: Gautam Mukunda <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> I like to think of myself as something of a Lincoln expert. I'm certainly a Lincoln _fanatic_.
I'm a huge Lincoln fan, myself, though, I'm certain I'm not nearly as well versed on him as you likely are.
The other stuff is equally tendentious, of course. The idea that the Civil War wasn't about slavery is the product of a frankly racist school of historical thinking that few historians of the post-Civil Rights era would accept. The idea that it was about confiscatory taxation is, of course, absurd.
I had a long debate with someone over what the Civil War was about not that long ago. He refused to accept slavery as the root issue, even after I produced for him a quote from Abraham Lincoln himself saying in effect that the cause boiled down to slavery even though neither side wanted to admit it.
Oddly, the guy wasn't at all racist, as far as I could tell, and he was from Wisconsin, so I don't think it was about him protecting his southern pride. The only thing I can think of is that some favorite teacher taught him that the Civil War wasn't about slavery, and he'd latched into it and refused to let go despite the facts.
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