Abraham Lincoln:
“I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races. There is physical difference between the two which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality, and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position.”
That was conventional wisdom at the time. You’d have searched in vain to find a politician above the dog catcher level who would’ve said different.
, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position.”
The same man who said those words, also said the following words; it would be interesting to know which he said first:
“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.”
“The assertion that ‘all men are created equal’, was of no practical use in our separation from Great Britain and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use.”
“The man who could go to Africa and rob her of her children, and then sell them into interminable bondage, with no other motive than that which is furnished by dollars and cents, is so much worse than the most depraved murderer, that he can never receive pardon at my hand.”
A very complicated man, was Lincoln.