...there is misanthropic anti-social thinking. Such a claim...that no war was ever fought for any reason other than selfish grabs for power...is increasingly common today, in the era of aggressive secularist, moral relativism and the accompanying strain of loathing for the nature of man that follows.
No man who thought humanity had the spark of divine in him would conclude that it was impossible for Lincoln to have considered the war worth fighting for reasons other than selfish ones. I am no Pollyanna...I think humans are fallen, flawed creatures. But I think we are just as capable of love and mercy and the impulse toward justice and liberty as we are capable of hatred, lust for power, greed, and evil. And I don't see anything Lincoln had to gain for himself by fighting the war. It got him MURDERED. And he knew that was a risk. He did expand the power of the executive branch while prosecuting the war, but surely there are less risky ways to do that. Obama had a pen and a phone...that worked pretty well and didn't kill 600,000 people.