Address on Colonization to a Deputation of Negroes
~Abraham Lincoln
http://www.counter-currents.com/2013/01/address-on-colonization-to-a-deputation-of-negroes/
“August 14, 1862
This afternoon the President of the United States gave audience to a Committee of colored men at the White House.
They were introduced by the Rev. J. Mitchell, Commissioner of Emigration.
E. M. Thomas, the Chairman, remarked that they were there by invitation to hear what the Executive had to say to them.
Having all been seated, the President, after a few preliminary observations, informed them that a sum of money had been appropriated by Congress, and placed at his disposition for the purpose of aiding the colonization in some country of the people, or a portion of them, of African descent, thereby making it his duty, as it had for a long time been his inclination, to favor that cause; and why, he asked, should the people of your race be colonized, and where?
Why should they leave this country? This is, perhaps, the first question for proper 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 suffer very greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence.
In a word we suffer on each side. If this is admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated. You here are freemen I suppose....”
And yet, just a few weeks before his assassination, he was talking about giving blacks the vote. It’s safe to say his views evolved over the course of the war.
Thanks for posting.
Read the whole thing. I think that at the time every word he said was indisputably true. Arguably, much of it is still true today.
The relevant issue is that when Lincoln discovered a general absence of enthusiasm among black Americans for being “colonized,” the issue was dropped. The Emancipation Proclamation, for instance, does not mention it.
Lincoln and the government actually endorsed and partially funded one attempt to “colonize” an island off the coast of Haiti with freedmen. Didn’t turn out well.
Ran across a fascinating article on the subject, by a descendant of the promoter.
http://thompsongenealogy.com/2011/12/bernard-kock-colonized-cow-island-with-freed-slaves/