What was abraham lincoln's reasoning when he refused to let the southern states secede?

For Lincoln, allowing American democracy to succeed was compatible with the ideal of freedom; allowing secessionists to destroy it (in response to a democratic election) was not.  In other words, Lincoln did not believe that true freedom was letting states do their own thing--and letting the pillars of American constitutional democracy run amok--but instead, in maintaining a union where the great experiment of democracy could flourish.  As Lincoln himself said quite clearly in the Gettysburg Address, he was  committed to making sure "...that government of the people, by the  people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."  I suppose you can argue that Lincoln's vision of freedom was not worth the price, but you cannot deny that he had a vision of freedom--and that, for him, this vision was compatible with maintaining the historic, unprecedented political freedom that was achieved in 1776.

john maynard keynes developed new economic theories in response to the stock market crash of 1929. great depression of the 1930s. first and second world wars. economic boom of the 1950s.

1960: wilma rudolph was the first woman to win three olympic gold medals in track and field at one olympic games. she was an american sprinter from tennessee, she was acclaimed the fastest woman in the world. she was among the most visible black women in america and abroad. she became a role model for black and female athletes. she was also known as a civil rights and women right's pioneer.

1973: billy jean king is an american former number one tennis player. she represented the united states in the federal cup and the wightman cup. for three years she was the usa's captain in the federation cup. she defends gender equality and has been a pioneer for equal and social justice. at the age of 29, she won "the battle of sexes" tennis match against the 55 year old bobby riggs. she was also the founder of women's tennis association and the women's sports foundation.  

1983: tamara mckinney becomes the first american female skier to win the alpine world cup overall championship top. she was the only american to hold that title for a quarter century until 2008.

1992: manon rhéaume, from canada,   becomes the only woman to start in a national hockey league game in an exhibition game for the tampa bay lightning . she played on the canada women's national ice hockey team winning gold medals in 1992 and 1994. and silver medals in 1998. manon marked the first time a woman appeared in a regular season professional game with her first appearance against the salt lake golden eagles.

2013: serena williams won 78 of 82 matches at the age of 31. she is an american professional tennis player. she reached the number 1 ranking for the first time on july, 8, 2002. at the age of 16, she played against karsten braasch the battle of sexes. she was the highest paid female athlete in 2016. she is a unicef ambassador .