Replies

“But even so, no, not “the North” in general, just Northern Democrats soon again allied with their Southern racist Democrat partners.”

I continue to believe it is unwise to play the racist card against figures in the 19th century.

Here's one reason why:

“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races - that 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 forever 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. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything.”

You lost losers love claiming how “racist” Lincoln was. In that day and age almost everyone was racist. Only the most hardcore abolitionist believed in full equality between the races.

Here’s another one the lost losers love to us, but usually with the last line omitted.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, August 22, 1862.

Hon. Horace Greeley:
Dear Sir.

I have just read yours of the 19th. addressed to myself through the New-York Tribune. If there be in it any statements, or assumptions of fact, which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here, argue against them. If there be perceptable in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be right.

As to the policy I “seem to be pursuing” as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt.

I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be “the Union as it was.” If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. 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.

I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free.

Yours,
A. Lincoln.

Pay attention to the last paragraph. Morally that puts him head and shoulders above everyone in the leadership of the southern rebellion, and most people of the time.

"I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything.”

What you constantly overlook in your attempts to blame Lincoln for every crime in humanity is his quotes like that. The position of Douglas and every Southern leader you care to name was that the negro should be denied everything. Everything from education to the ability to work how and where they wanted to the very citizenship that white people enjoyed.

And in the first debate when Lincoln said, " I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and the black races. There is a 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. I have never said anything to the contrary, but I hold that, notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas he is not my equal in many respects-certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowment. But in the right to eat the bread, without the leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man." You, and people like you, will fixate on the first part and claim it's proof of Lincoln's bigotry while totally ignoring the second part and realizing that if your life depended on it you could not name a single Southern leader who believed black people were his equal in any way at all, or who believed that black people had any rights whatsoever that a white man was bound to respect. You judge Lincoln by 21st century standards because if you judged him by the standards of the times you would be forced to admit he was far more accepting than his peers. And where is the fun in that?

jeffersondem: " continue to believe it is unwise to play the racist card against figures in the 19th century.
Here's one reason why:"

Sure, "Lincoln the racist" is a favorite Lost Cause meme, but there are no men of that time who would meet today's standards, even the Great Emancipator, Lincoln himself.
But Lincoln lead the effort to pass the 13th Amendment in Congress and his party passed the 14th & 15th after the war.
They also enforced those laws until 1876 when political compromise with Southern Democrats withdrew Union troops and allowed, in effect, nullification of the amendments for the better part of 100 years.

"I have always thought that all men should be free; but if any should be slaves it should be first those who desire it for themselves, and secondly those who desire it for others."