Was Lincoln Autocratic Or Democratic?

Before Abraham Lincoln was even in office, President James Buchanan led the country. Buchanan is considered to be one of the worst presidents in American history, mainly due to his lack of involvement and help in the crisis over slavery. Because of Buchanan, seven states had left the Union to form the Confederacy. This eventually grew to eleven states by the beginning of the war, leaving Lincoln with a tough task in front of him. During Lincoln’s presidency, his main focus and priority was the Civil War. During the war he was trying to free slaves, as well as unite the country. The country was very divided between pro slavery and antislavery. Lincoln’s goal was not any easy one to achieve due to the strong opinions on African Americans. So the question is, was Lincoln and Autocratic or a Democratic president and does he deserve his reputation as a …show more content…
From this it is easy to say that Lincoln was a Democratic president and believed in freedom for everyone, even though some of the things he did could be seen as Autocratic. Aside from being Democratic, Lincoln’s efforts to end the war and slavery shows he deserves the title of a heroic and great leader. Lincoln believed that in order for Democracy to stay alive, the Union had to stay together and to do that everyone needed to be free. In his early views of slavery, Lincoln believed that it was “a great evil” and that the slaves should be emancipated. But he knew that immediate abolition wasn't the right answer due to most of the country’s racist views. Instead he wanted to slowly free the slaves by compensating the owners for the price of their slave and in doing so have little to no opposition. Before the war had begun Southern states felt threatened that they’d lose their slaves due to Lincoln’s