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President Abraham Lincoln on Race*
| President Abraham Lincoln |
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| Library of Congress |
Abraham Lincoln opposed slavery throughout his life, and, by freeing slaves
during the American Civil War, he did more to improve the lives of Black Americans than any other president.
Lincoln referred to slavery as a "monstrous injustice" and "a moral, social
and political evil." With characteristic eloquence, he wrote in 1864: "I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong,
nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel."
Yet Lincoln did not originally intend to eliminate slavery. On August 21,
1858, in his famous debate with Stephen Douglas, Lincoln said: "I have no purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with
the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination
to do so."
It was only when Lincoln feared losing the Civil War that he freed slaves
in the South. "If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it," wrote Lincoln in 1862. "What I do about
slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union."
Nor did Lincoln support equal rights, as he made clear in a speech on September
18, 1858: "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 of 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 for 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."
In a speech on October 15, 1858, Lincoln went even further: "We profess
to have no taste for running and catching niggers -- at least I profess no taste for that job at all. Why then do I yield
support to a fugitive slave law? Because I do not understand that the Constitution, which guarantees that right, can be supported
without it."
Lincoln's answer to racial conflict was colonization. In a meeting with
Black leaders on August 14, 1862, Lincoln tried to persuade his listeners to establish a colony of free black people in Central
America. Speaking on behalf of white people, Lincoln said: "There is an unwillingness on the part of our people, harsh as
it may be, for you free colored people to remain with us .... If intelligent colored men, such as are before me, would move
in this matter, much might be accomplished. It is exceedingly important that we have men at the beginning capable of thinking
as white men."
* Lincoln was both an abolitionist and a racist. This view, however, is not taught in our public school
system. Although Lincoln was a racist, it by no means detracts from the fact that President Abraham Lincoln forever abolished
slavery in the United States.
Recommended Reading: Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates that Defined America (Simon & Schuster). Description: In 1858, Abraham Lincoln
was known as a successful Illinois lawyer who had achieved
some prominence in state politics as a leader in the new Republican Party. Two years later, he was elected president and was
on his way to becoming the greatest chief executive in American history. What carried this one-term congressman from obscurity
to fame was the campaign he mounted for the United States Senate against the country's most formidable politician, Stephen
A. Douglas, in the summer and fall of 1858. Lincoln challenged Douglas directly in one of his
greatest speeches -- "A house divided against itself cannot stand" -- and confronted Douglas on the questions of slavery and
the inviolability of the Union in seven fierce debates. As this brilliant narrative by the
prize-winning Lincoln scholar Allen Guelzo dramatizes, Lincoln
would emerge a predominant national figure, the leader of his party, the man who would bear the burden of the national confrontation.
Continued below...
Of course,
the great issue between Lincoln and Douglas was slavery. Douglas was the champion of "popular sovereignty," of letting states and territories decide
for themselves whether to legalize slavery. Lincoln drew a
moral line, arguing that slavery was a violation both of natural law and of the principles expressed in the Declaration of
Independence. No majority could ever make slavery right, he argued. Lincoln lost that Senate
race to Douglas, though he came close to toppling the "Little Giant," whom almost everyone
thought was unbeatable. Guelzo's Lincoln and Douglas brings alive their debates and this whole year of campaigns and underscores
their centrality in the greatest conflict in American history. The encounters between Lincoln and Douglas engage a key question
in American political life: What is democracy's purpose? Is it to satisfy the desires of the majority? Or is it to achieve
a just and moral public order? These were the real questions in 1858 that led to the Civil War. They remain questions for
Americans today.
Recommended Reading:
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (944 pages) (Simon & Schuster). Description:
The life and times of Abraham Lincoln have been analyzed and dissected in countless books. Do we need another Lincoln biography? In Team of Rivals, esteemed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin proves that
we do. Though she can't help but cover some familiar territory, her perspective is focused enough to offer fresh insights
into Lincoln's leadership style and his deep understanding
of human behavior and motivation. Goodwin makes the case for Lincoln's
political genius by examining his relationships with three men he selected for his cabinet, all of whom were opponents for
the Republican nomination in 1860: William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, and Edward Bates. Continued below...
These men,
all accomplished, nationally known, and presidential, originally disdained Lincoln for his backwoods upbringing and lack of
experience, and were shocked and humiliated at losing to this relatively obscure Illinois lawyer. Yet Lincoln
not only convinced them to join his administration--Seward as secretary of state, Chase as secretary of the treasury, and
Bates as attorney general--he ultimately gained their admiration and respect as well. How he soothed egos, turned rivals into
allies, and dealt with many challenges to his leadership, all for the sake of the greater good, is largely what Goodwin's
fine book is about. Had he not possessed the wisdom and confidence to select and work with the best people, she argues, he
could not have led the nation through one of its darkest periods. Ten years in the making, this engaging work reveals why
"Lincoln's road to success was longer, more tortuous, and far less likely" than the other men,
and why, when opportunity beckoned, Lincoln was "the best
prepared to answer the call." This multiple biography further provides valuable background and insights into the contributions
and talents of Seward, Chase, and Bates. Lincoln may have been "the indispensable ingredient
of the Civil War," but these three men were invaluable to Lincoln
and they played key roles in keeping the nation intact.
Recommended Reading: The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery
Politics. Review From Publishers Weekly: The perennial tension between principle and pragmatism in politics frames
this engaging account of two Civil War Era icons. Historian Oakes (Slavery and Freedom) charts the course by which Douglass
and Lincoln, initially far apart on the antislavery spectrum, gravitated toward each other. Lincoln began as a moderate who
advocated banning slavery in the territories while tolerating it in the South, rejected social equality for blacks and wanted
to send freedmen overseas—and wound up abolishing slavery outright and increasingly supporting black voting rights.
Conversely, the abolitionist firebrand Douglass moved from an impatient, self-marginalizing moral rectitude to a recognition
of compromise, coalition building and incremental goals as necessary steps forward in a democracy. Continued below...
Douglass's
views on race were essentially modern; the book is really a study through his eyes of the more complex figure of Lincoln.
Oakes lucidly explores how political realities and military necessity influenced Lincoln's
tortuous path to emancipation, and asks whether his often bigoted pronouncements represented real conviction or strategic
concessions to white racism. As Douglass shifts from denouncing Lincoln's foot-dragging to
revering his achievements, Oakes vividly conveys both the immense distance America
traveled to arrive at a more enlightened place and the fraught politics that brought it there. AWARDED FIVE STARS by americancivilwarhistory.org
Recommended Reading:
Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President
(Library of Religious Biography). Description: Since
its original publication in 1999, "Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President" has garnered numerous accolades, including the prestigious
2000 Lincoln Prize. Allen Guelzo's peerless biography of America's
most celebrated president is now available for the first time in a fine paperback edition. Continued below...
The first "intellectual biography" of Lincoln, this work explores the role of ideas
in Lincoln's life, treating him as a serious thinker deeply
involved in the nineteenth-century debates over politics, religion, and culture. Written with passion and dramatic impact,
Guelzo's masterful study offers a revealing new perspective on a man whose life was in many ways a paradox. As journalist
Richard N. Ostling notes, "Much has been written about Lincoln's
belief and disbelief," but Guelzo's extraordinary account "goes deeper."
Recommended Reading: Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America (Simon & Schuster). Description: One of the nation's foremost Lincoln
scholars offers an authoritative consideration of the document that represents the most far-reaching accomplishment of our
greatest president. No single official paper in American history changed the lives of as many Americans as Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. But no American document has been held up to greater
suspicion. Its bland and lawyerlike language is unfavorably compared to the soaring eloquence of the Gettysburg Address and
the Second Inaugural; its effectiveness in freeing the slaves has been dismissed as a legal illusion. And for some African-Americans
the Proclamation raises doubts about Lincoln himself. Continued below...
Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation dispels the myths and mistakes surrounding the Emancipation
Proclamation and skillfully reconstructs how America's
greatest president wrote the greatest American proclamation of freedom. About the Author: Allen C. Guelzo is the Grace Ferguson
Kea Professor of American History at Eastern University
(St. David's, Pennsylvania), where he also directs the Templeton Honors College. He is the author of five books, most recently the highly acclaimed Abraham
Lincoln: Redeemer President, which won the Lincoln Prize for 2000.
Recommended Viewing:
Slavery and the Making of America
(240 minutes), Starring: Morgan Freeman; Director: William R. Grant. Description: Acclaimed actor Morgan Freeman narrates this compelling documentary, which features a score by Michael
Whalen. Underscoring how slavery impacted the growth of this country's Southern and Northern states; the series examines issues
still relevant today. The variety of cultures from which the slaves originated provided the budding states with a multitude
of skills that had a dramatic effect on the diverse communities. From joining the British in the Revolutionary War, to fleeing
to Canada, to joining rebel communities in the U.S. the slaves sought freedom in many ways, ultimately having a far-reaching effect
on the new hemisphere they were forced to inhabit. AWARDED 5 STARS by americancivilwarhistory.org
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