Lincoln never claimed opposition to "negro equality" - he may have been shaky on the issue of believing in it, but he wasn't opposed to the idea of blacks having the basic rights.
Well, I don't know about that....
Now irrespective of the moral aspect of this question as to whether there is a right or wrong in enslaving a negro, I am still in favor of our new Territories being in such a condition that white men may find a home — may find some spot where they can better their condition — where they can settle upon new soil and better their condition in life. I am in favor of this not merely (I must say it here as I have elsewhere) for our own people who are born amongst us, but as an outlet for free white people every where, the world over [reply to Douglas on 15 October 1858].
A separation of the races is the only perfect preventive of amalgamation, but as immediate separation is impossible, the next best thing is to keep them apart where they are not already together.... Such separation, if ever affected at all, must be affected by coloniza tion.... The enterprise is a difficult one, but "where there is a will there is a way"; and what colonization needs now is a hearty will. Will springs from the two elements of moral sense and self-interest. Let us be brought to believe it is morally right, and at the same time, favorable to, or at least not against, our interest, to transfer the African to his native clime, and we shall find a way to do it, however great the task may be.
..[W]hy... should the people of your race be colonized, and where? Why should they leave the country? This is, perhaps, the first question for consideration. You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffers very greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffers from your presence. In a word we suffer on each side. If this be admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated.
You here are freemen, I suppose... but even when you cease to be slaves, you are yet far removed from being placed on an equality with the white race. You are cut off from many of the advantages which the other race enjoys.... Owing to the existence of the two races on this continent, I need not recount to you the effects upon white men growing out of the institution of slavery.
I believe in its general evil effects on the white race. See our present condition — the country engaged in war — our white men cutting one another's throats — none know ing how far it will extend — and then consider what we know to be the truth. But for your race among us there could not be war, although many men engaged on either side do not care for you one way or the other.... It is better for us both therefore to be separated.... [speech delivered at the Executive Mansion on 14 August 1862]
I have urged the colonization of the negroes, and I shall continue. My Emancipation Proclamation was linked with this plan. There is no room for two distinct races of white men in America, much less for two distinct races of whites and blacks.
Within twenty years we can peacefully colonize the negro and give him our language, literature, religion, and system of government under conditions in which he can rise to the full measure of manhood. This he can never do here. We can never attain the ideal union our fathers dreamed of, with millions of an alien, inferior race among us, whose assimilation is neither possible nor desirable [address delivered at Washington, D.C.; in Roy P. Basler, The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume V, pages 371-375].
Now, I disagree with Mr. Lincoln whole-heartily here. Neither God, Whom he also blamed, nor the Negro Slave, was the cause of Mr. Lincoln's War.
It was what Jefferson said in his letter to Lafayette; the Anglomen of the North gaining an equality in the general government!
Which is what led to the Slave question being any sort of a question, and also to God being the cause...
Not because of the slaves... but because of 'Eastern' agitators!
54th
Yes he did believe they should be equal under the law, but that's where it stopped as far as this equality business. Somebody posted the speech recently; if it wasn't midnight I'd go try and find it.
Bringing the