Policy-Simple.  A serious attempt to negotiate South Carolina back
into the Union before picking a fight with them and forcing the other
Southern states and people to take sides (which most did only begrudgingly;
C.f. REL).  His lack of experience and character killed this option and led
to war.

       War should always be a last resort following negotiation.  Here,
against his fellow countrymen, it became Lincoln's first option.  I laugh at
the suggestion that Lincoln was a great wartime leader, since the war
decimated both north and south with little or nothing gained that could not
have been gained by serious negotiation and real "leadership."  Any 800 pound
gorilla can have its way, but leadership has nothing to do with it.

       Name a new and innovative policy that Lincoln implemented during his
administration for which he actually followed the requirements of the
Constitution from the start (Emancipation was illegal and unconstitutional
from the start, as Lincoln admitted, so the progeny of it doesn't count).  I
hope no one considers making war on your fellow countrymen as an innovative
policy.  What else?

JDS

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