"None of the States were allowed to reenter the Union unless they garunteed that they would promise to provide a Republican type of Government...
As a young Lawyer of 28 years of age. Lincoln proposed doing away with the Consitution, had he lived he may have done just that..."

The Constitution guarantees us a rebublican (small r) form of government, as Ben Franklin pointed out. There is no way Lincoln would have tried that. Like a lot of young whippersnappers, he had some radical ideas when he was younger; he just got a chance to try some of them out. He faced enough opposition to tell me the Constitution would have been safe from him. He did tell Grant to "Let 'em up easy.", when discussing the treatment to be given the South. Stan