I have never met anybody whom I didn't feel had an opinion of Lincoln that wasn't skewered one way or another. I suggest taking David's advice and just read as much as you can and decide for yourself.

I would never close the door on my thought process about this though. We Americans, both northern and southern variety sometimes lose sight of the fact that all men are created in the image of God and thus have some divine qualities. We also forget that man is a fallen being and thus also has a habit of doing bad things, with or without the best of intentions. Thus, we have both vilified and deified the man.

I feel sorry for those on both sides of the issue because it seems there is no middle ground. I guess for someone to understand this who is not an American I would tell them that we as a people are prone to reacting with our hearts instead of our heads :-)