His nature? Really? How strange then that he supported ending slavery in Washington, DC, recognized the nation of Haiti, earned the friendship of Frederick Douglass and other blacks who interacted with him personally, pushed the 13th Amendment through Congress and supported at least some black voting rights, which was why Booth said he was determined to assassinate Lincoln.
Respectfully, please expain,
I will say then, that
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, that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of making voters of the negroes, or jurors, or qualifying them to hold office, or having them to marry with white people. I will say in addition, that there is a physical difference between the white and black races, which I suppose, will forever forbid the two races living together upon terms of social and political equality, and inasmuch, as they cannot so live, that while they do remain together,
there must be the position of superior and inferior, that I as much as any other man am in favor of the superior position being assigned to the white man. I say in this connection, that I do not perceive, however, that
because the white man is to have the superior position, that it requires that the negro should be denied everything.
Source: The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: The First Complete, Unexpurgated Text, p. 189, Editor Harold Holzer. Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.
My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and
is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.
Source: Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 8, pp. 15-16, By Nicolay & Hay
In it [this speech] you not only perceive, as a probability, that in that contest [with Douglas in 1858]
I did not at any time say I was in favor of negro suffrage; but
the absolute proof that twice—once substantially and once expressly—I declared against it.
Source: The Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 5, p. 145, by Nicolay & Hay
As matter of fact, the first branch of the proposition is historically true: the government was made by white men,
and they were and are the superior race.
Source: Life and Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol III, p 282, Roy P. Basler
Nor is it any argument that
we are superior and the negro inferior—that he has but one talent while we have ten. Let the negro possess the little he has in independence; if he has but one talent, he should be permitted to keep the little he has.
Source: Life and Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol III, p 282, Roy P. Basler
There is no reason…why the negro is not entitled to all the rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence – the right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.…
He is as much entitled to these as the white man…[though] he is not my equal in many respects, certainly not in color – perhaps not in intellectual and moral endowments; but in the right to eat the bread without leave of anybody else which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal…of every other man.
Source: The Complete Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858, p. 117, Paul M. Angle
Respectfully,
William
One Nation
Two countries