True, but as others have mentioned, it was to keep money flowing into the Union, especially since half of it was now gone into its own confederacy.

This certainly isn't to say that the income tax is validation Lincoln would support liberal ideas. The Presidents who also were supportive of national taxes were:

James Madison - Sales Tax (War of 1812) - Federalist
Andrew Johnson - Tax on Tobacco/booze - Unionist/Democrat
Woodrow Wilson - 16th Amendment - Democrat
FDR - Witholding Tax on Wages - Democrat

But, also, the congresses of these Presidents didn't necessarily coincide with the politics of the CIC.

This isn't anything particularly new, or liberal. James Madison had been a Federalist since before the Constitution was written, and approved the Second National Bank during his administration. Certainly nothing specifically liberal about this idea.

Again, this isn't something exclusively democrat - in this case, the Civil War created the necessity for government funds, namely to pay the military and keep the government working.

What President hasn't been called something along the lines of "infidel" by his detractors?

And one particular quote is easily matched with another.

"That I am not a member of any Christian Church, is true; but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures; and I have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general, or any denomination of Christians in particular." - Abraham Lincoln

"The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong." - Abraham Lincoln

I'll quote myself. Lincoln was a free-soiler, and is quoted many times saying that while he disagreed with slavery, he felt it was his Presidential duty, bound by the constitution, to preserve slavery where it was legalized. Lincoln himself, while disagreeing with slavery, was powerless to stop it if he wanted to preserve the Union. Only after the states had ceded did Lincoln free the slaves (and only in states he didn't control, so border states that hadn't ceded weren't included, namely: Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri and West Virginia).

It wasn't necessarily poor people, it was farmers, especially those who would be displaces after the Civil War. Not only that, but the Homestead Act served as a means to populate and expand West. I'm not seeing how this makes one liberal - why would helping the poor define one as "liberal" or "conservative." If I was President, I would want to help the poor. It doesn't stand along party lines, imho.

Ok...we still have war bonds to this day. We had them in WWI, and WWII, and in Korea, and in Vietnam, and you can still buy them for the current Iraqi war. How does this imply liberalism? Lincoln, as mentioned in about 4 other subjects, needed to raise funds for the Union, which lost half of its economic base when the South secessed.

Is this liberal or simply progressive? Even if he did think this was so, he still would've kept slavery intact if he thought it would have preserved the Union, and he has said this more than once.


Again, if the Union could have been preserved otherwise, he would have kept the system the same. Why wasn't this made so in the North, where Lincoln had control? Lincoln, if nothing else, was an excellent politician. He knew where his bread was buttered. Of course he would say that he would endorse equality for blacks. On the other hand, he also said that he would preserve slavery.

A quote or citation would help for this one, since I can't remember any in my Lincoln books regarding this particular subject.

So did quite a few people. Hell, Thomas Jefferson fathered children with Sally Hemings, a slave. It wasn't something out of the question.

This would be another one where source would be helpful.

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Kudos on civil debate.

Best,
DJ