Why do many historians consider Abraham Lincoln to be the country's greatest president? Would Americans who lived during the Civil War have agreed?

Lincoln led the nation through the American Civil War, its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. He preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the U. S. economy.

A lot of people consider him to be great because he ended slavery. Back in civil war time, some might have not liked him because he wanted slaves to be free