Our country has been on the downfall since at least Abraham Lincoln. He was the gateway to horrible presidents. Under his presidency, the states lost their sovereignty and the Federal government has been over-reaching and encroaching nonstop since. He imprisoned thousands of people in the NORTH for their dissenting opinions about the war and other policies, many of his targets included newspaper editors. To make it worse, he did that without trials for his political prisoners. I have nothing good to say for Lincoln, even the Emancipation Proclamation was only "effective" (it wasn't effective at all, but I'm referring to the area where it was supposed to have an effect.) in the areas where Lincoln didn't have any control. That is to say, that Lincoln's Federal army had control of some southern areas which were allowed to retain slaves. The Civil War had nothing to do with slavery. It was really a war for State Sovereignty, and the people lost.