Despite McClellan denying wanting to be Dictator, I don't think he would have been so displeased.
"I almost think that were I to win some small success now I could become Dictator or anything else that might please me — but nothing of that kind would please me — therefore I won’t be Dictator. Admirable self denial!”
-George B. McClellan
https://www.mrlincolnandnewyork.org/new-yorkers/george-b-mcclellan-1826-1885/index.html
Chose, managed and worked with a team of rivals. Many of them men with high ambitions of their own who did not think highly of Lincoln.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_of_Rivals
"Lincoln had become widely known for his anti-slavery stance and seemed to fit solidly into a political party that abhorred slavery and wanted to see it eradicated. Democrats, especially Southerners, depicted the Republicans as an abolition party and issued dire warnings that Lincoln would take action to free the slaves if elected president. Lincoln, on the other hand, claimed to have no power as president to free the slaves, although he asserted presidential authority to block the spread of slavery into the territories."
https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/republican-party-platform-of-1860
I think that Lincoln was a realist with good intentions.
And that the Emancipation Proclamation was about practicality, more than never or not wanting to.
. . . Though without the Civil War, maybe he would have taken the longer view of abolishing slavery, first by preventing it's spread into new states if he could.
Sure he could have run for president on the Emancipation Proclamation or done it at any time during his presidency, but if the result is failure and misery, how can one say one is trying to do good?
So he choose a better time for it.
I think Fredrick Douglass 'was an influence on Lincolns views, which earlier seemed to take the tack of emigrating African Americans away from America.
. . But, I also think not every president would have been as open as Lincoln was to having his mind changed. As willing to talk and listen.
Course, one could argue there were pure Abolitionists who wouldn't have 'needed their minds changed, but a strong tree without any flex can break. Maybe various theoretical Abolitionist Presidents wouldn't have been able to do what Lincoln did. Leaning too strong into their right cause, perhaps it would have failed to unite and maneuver as politics demands.
https://www.whitehousehistory.org/frederick-douglass-and-abraham-lincoln
"the Dakota, who were facing starvation and displacement, attacked the Lower Sioux Agency and white settlements along the Minnesota River valley in southwest Minnesota.[7] The war lasted for five weeks and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of settlers and the displacement of thousands more.[8] In the aftermath, the Dakota people were exiled from their homelands, forcibly sent to reservations in the Dakotas and Nebraska, and the State of Minnesota confiscated and sold all their remaining land in the state.[8] Thirty-eight Dakota men were subsequently hanged for crimes committed during the conflict in the largest mass execution in US history.[8]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakota_War_of_1862
"The surrendered Dakota men and their families were held while military trials took place from September to November 1862. Of the 498 trials, 303 men were convicted and sentenced to death.[8]: 72 President Lincoln commuted the sentences of all but 38.[84] A few weeks prior to the execution, the convicted men were sent to Mankato, while 1,658 Natives and "mixed bloods", including their families and the "friendly" Dakota, were sent to a compound south of Fort Snelling.[19]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakota_War_of_1862
Not 'ideal, but I don't think Lincoln looks 'so bad in this 'specific incident.
What a mess, American expansion West.
I'd argue not 'purely one sided.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
From what I've read of him, I think Lincoln was overall a magnificent person and leader, though not without flaws.
Read and mostly taught himself the law.
https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/lincoln/practicing-law.html
Served in war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln_in_the_Black_Hawk_War
A great debater.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln–Douglas_debates
Grew up in a log cabin, to me it's 'astounding how high he reached, how much he developed himself from his start.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Log_Cabin_State_Historic_Site
I forget the exact wording,
But from what I recall reading, Lincoln wasn't too hands on the military and it's actions,
He was able to recognize when others had ability he lacked, and delegate.
He was not to be vengeful or too soft in peace I think following the Civil War,
But alas perhaps, he got assassinated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Johnson
Self control, and able to let go of petty slights.
In Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years & the War Years, Carl Sandburg wrote that when things got too much for Lincoln,“He could write an angry letter, with hard names and hot epithets—and then throw it in the stove. He advised it was a help sometimes to write a hot letter and then burn it.”
https://pcg.church/articles/6219/not-signed-not-sent#:~:text=In%20Abraham%20Lincoln%3A%20The%20Prairie,letter%20and%20then%20burn%20it.”
