Lincoln as Dictator?

I have been reading some of DiLorenzo's work on Lincoln. While Lincoln was not into Indians he had his hand in many other items he should not have. DiLorenzo had a debate with another chap on whether Lincoln was a friend or foe. DiLorenzo of course said he was foe. The transcript of the debate is here.

It is worth reading. DiLorenzo makes the argument that Lincoln was a dictator and not a great president. He lays out nine reasons:

1. The illegal suspension of the writ of habeous corpus on his own.
2. He shut down more than 300 opposition newspapers.
3. He started a war without congressional approval.
4. He confiscated firearms in the border states.
5. Lincoln micro-managed the waging of war on civilians for four long years.
6. All telegraph communication was censored.
7. He confiscated private property.
8. He arrested his detractors.
9. He rigged Northern elections.

Go see his debate ad he lays out the debate in an excellent format. BTW if George Bush had done half of this, he would have been kicked out of office.

Have a happy day.