Abe Lincoln Was A Bigot

“I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races. I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people. And I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. … And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.” – Abraham Lincoln in his fourth debate with Stephen Douglas in the campaign for the United States Senate on September 18th of 1858.
https://markii.wordpress.com/2007/02/19/racist-quote-by-abe-lincoln-happy-black-history-month/


A new book on the celebrated US president and hero of the anti-slavery movement, who was born 202 years ago on Saturday, argues that he went on supporting the highly controversial policy of colonisation.

It was favoured by US politicians who did not believe free black people should live among white Americans, and had been backed by prominent abolitionists like Henry Clay as far back as 1816.


Mr Lincoln also favoured the idea. But he was believed to have denounced it after signing the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed of most of America’s four million slaves, in January 1863.


The notion that he came to regard it as unacceptable contributed to the legend of the 16th president, who is frequently voted America’s greatest, and is held by some to have left an impeccable record.


Yet Phillip Magness and Sebastian Page, the authors of Colonisation After Emancipation, discovered documents in the National Archives in Kew and in the US that will significantly alter his legacy.
They found an order from Mr Lincoln in June 1863 authorising a British colonial agent, John Hodge, to recruit freed slaves to be sent to colonies in what are now the countries of Guyana and Belize.
“Hodge reported back to a British minister that Lincoln said it was his ‘honest desire’ that this emigration went ahead,” said Mr Page, a historian at Oxford University.
The plan came despite an earlier test shipment of about 450 freed slaves to Haiti resulting in disaster. The former slaves were struck by smallpox and starvation, and survivors had to be rescued.
Mr Lincoln also considered sending freed slaves to what is now Panama, to construct a canal — decades before work began on the modern canal there in 1904.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8319858/Abraham-Lincoln-wanted-to-deport-slaves-to-new-colonies.html

The real reason for the Civil War was not so much freeing the slaves, it was to protect the profits of the corporations in the north. The GOP has always been the corporate flunky. The republican majority in the Supreme Court ruled a few years ago that "corporations are people" and therefore can donate as much as they want to political campaigns, in effect buying the government.

 

Lincoln's racism is why our government regulates marriage. The gay marriage "right" recently granted is not really a victory. It would be better for Americans for the government to vacate the marriage issue entirely.

I no longer favor a political party since both keep the most oppressive programs in operation like the War on Drugs and the useless border that I've been hearing about my entire life. Neither side seems to support the actual Americans and instead seem to be geared only toward scoring a buck from each of our hides.

 

Lincoln made himself very clear on the subject. He said that if he could preserve the Union by freeing all of the slaves he would do that. If he could preserve the Union by leaving all of the slaves in slavery he would do that. Lastly if he could preserve the Union by freeing some slaves but leaving others in slavery he would do that as well.

 

You may find--A Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin a good read. I did.

 

Yeah but we speak just words
Wisdom in deeds

 

Yeah, I care a lot more about what Lincoln did than what he said.

Politicians will say anything; 160 years ago, same as today.

 

Without Lincoln the war might well have been won by the south. So even if he did display a bigotry usual at that period, he was probably the less bad of two options.

 

There is no probability behind.

 

Who really cares?
doesn't impact my or most likely anyone's daily life, except the guy who wrote the book.

 

People are interested in history. They like to read books about it.

 

I get and appreciate that, but often this stuff is posted as if it is Earth shattering revelations that will rock everyone's world, and it it isn't.

 

Some people though do hold cherished illusions about some historical characters. Doesn't hurt if they get shaken up now and then. Not, I agree, that it makes a lot of difference.

 

Which people?

 

People are one thing.

 

It's hard to get attention when you write about a subject as well-covered as Lincoln.

 

Abe Lincoln was a crossbreed human-sasquatch... So technically he was a bigfoot.

 

It's not hard to get attention when you write. Writing is the result of your attention.

 

every civilization there has ever been has had slaves, i feel it's simply evolution spurring uitilisation of that which we surround ourselves with, such as how we use animals for labor, equipment, food and keep them as pets.

 

Do you realize that this post makes you look like a monster?