Was freeing the slaves and violating the individual rights of slave owners by stealing their property and violating state's rights and the price of 600,000 American lives worth it?   

Why not a federal buy-back program to free the slaves?   

No, it was about federalism and the domination of the atates and the citizens by an over-bearing federal government for which we are still paying.   

Lincoln was and is the hero of federalists.