NGC's "The Real Abraham Lincoln" was a one sided, stilted, and erroneous portrayl of the 16th president. Like many other similar portrayls of Lincoln, the program attempted to explain the War Between the States as merely a war to abolish slavery, in which Lincoln played an integral role. While the program referred glowingly to the Emancipation Proclamation, it should be noted that the Emancipation Proclamation did not effect slave status in the border states, nor should it have effected slaves in the South, given that Lincoln had no jurisdictional power over the Confederacy. Many historians additionally believe that Lincoln's motivation for advancing the Emancipation Proclamation was to promote slave insurrection in the South, where most of the able bodied males were off at war. Thankfully, this did not occur.

The program was effusive in its Lincoln quotations regarding black equality. What it neglected to mention were some of Lincoln's quotes that prove him to be the consumate politician, and less the egalitarian. For instance..."I have no purpose to introduce political or social equality between the white and negro race. There is a physical difference between the two which probably will forever forbid their living together on the same footing of equality. I as well as any other man, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position. I have never said anything of to the contrary." There's also, "I am not in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, or qualifying them to hold office, nor of intermarriages with white people".

As for the impetus to initiate the conflict, Lincoln asserted, "We did not go into the war to put down slavery, but to put the flag back; and to act differently at this moment would, I have no doubt, not only weaken our cause, but smack of bad faith".

Those aforementioned quotes conclusively prove Lincoln's motivation was not to free the slaves. Rather, his motivation for war came from his contiuned belief in high tariffs which disapportionly favored the North, and his Hamiltonian desire to create and maintain a strong central government. Sadly, none of these factors were ever broached in "The Real Lincoln".

"The Real Lincoln" provided a myopic view of a man who sent 600,000 of his fellow citizens off to meet their maker. If indeed we accept the show's premise that the war was fought to end slavery, it should be noted that no where else in the western hemisphere where slavery existed, (with the exception of Haiti), was there a war begun to end the practice. Everywhere else slaveholders were financially renumerated for their slaves, and life went on.

NGC's foray into history should best be left to other networks. The truly saddest aspect of this program is that many viewers will take information stated in "The Real Lincoln" prima facia, electing not to pursue the truth through their own historical research.