"Then why, today, is Lincoln venerated by many, nearly everyone it seems, as our "greatest President?"

First of all you must be kidding when you say nearly everyone. Not so in the South.

Perhaps Yankee sympathizers need to feel that 300,000 of their men and boys died for something noble.

Perhaps African Americans need to have a hero and mistakenly believe that Lincoln 'freed the slaves'.

The truth is that no Presdident in our history ever trashed the US Constitution (that he swore to protect and defend)like Lincoln.