Ironic, since the GOP has been for big centralized gov't since its inception - at the expense of states' rights.
In fact, it was Lincoln who first referred to the USA as a nation, shortly after the war against the renegade states of the South - that war being one neither the President nor Congress had the constitutional authority to wage.
He suspended habeas corpus, and his Emancipation Proclamation contradicted his own stance that the Federal Gov't had no constitutional power to end slavery. He also restricted the free press and speech.
Lincoln's legacy was one of subjugation, violating the Constitution when he saw fit, and eroding the individuality of states and citizens in order to bring them under the yoke of big federal goverment.
Thing is, his approach and faux justification was very much in line with the false narrative and mythology you spew, and for the same reasons. It's a fabrication whose purpose is control and power at the expense of liberty and individual rights. Even the ultimate freeing of the slaves was meant as a way of breaking the South economically. He couldn't give half a crap about the people who were enslaved. Lincoln disregarded the Constitution and the rights of Americans for the sake of his own authoritarian agenda.
Sound familiar?
