"What President Lincoln Thought about Slavery"

Vocabulary Word:

Cavilling

ROOT WORD:   cav·il
v. cav·iled also cav·illed, cav·il·ing also cav·il·ling, cav·ils also cav·ils
v.intr.
To find fault unnecessarily; raise trivial objections. See Synonyms at quibble.
v.tr.
To quibble about; detect petty flaws in.
n.
A carping or trivial objection.

Questions:

"These are palpable facts, about which, as facts, there can be no cavilling."  were Lincoln's words in the letter to the New York Times.  It sounds like the President is very confident in his decisions on emancipation and use of blacks in the Civil War.

Choose the highlighted meaning in the glossary entry above and explain why you think that is the meaning for the word cavilling, used by Lincoln.