You have been singularly unsuccessful in finding one contemporary of Lincoln who praised his alleged virtues while he was alive. I have been quoting from Lincoln's own administration, hand-picked by Lincoln. Lincoln's Secretary of War, Lincoln's Secretary of State, Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury and appointee to the Supreme Court. I have quoted military leaders Lincoln selected for their positions of leadership.
[Walt] What you are getting me to do is dive into my pedant's bag of quotes to prove again what has been known for 138 years. Abraham Lincoln was a great and good man.
You cannot prove Lincoln was great and good by quoting Reagan. I note your pedant's bag of quotes contains not a single one of his contemporaries praising him before his assassination. You are unlikely to find one where he ever preached Black equality either. But he did use the N-word and he called Mexicans "mongrels."
You may continue to worship at the altar of your lord god abraham. I will continue to quote the gospel according to Abraham.
Quoting from James McPherson, "Frederick Douglass believed that Lincoln was 'allowing himself to be ... the miserable tool of traitors and rebels."
More McPherson:
The president asked the black leaders to recruit volunteers for a government-financed pilot colonization project in Central America. If this worked, it could pave the way for theemigration of thousands more who might be freed by the war.
Most black spokesmen in the North ridiculed Lincoln's proposal and denounced its author. "This is our country as much as it is yours," a Philadelphia Negro told the president, "and we will not leave it." Frederick Douglass accused Lincoln of, "contempt for negroes" and "canting hypocrisy." The president's remarks, said Douglass, would encourage "ignorant and base" white men "to commit all kinds of violence and outrage upon the colored people."
. . .
Two-thirds of the Republicans in Congress became sufficiently convinced of the need to conciliate this sentiment that they voted for amendments to the District of Columbia emancipation bill and the confiscation act appropriating $600,000 for colonization. As a practical matter, said one Republican, colonization "is a damn humbug. But it will take with the people."
In the August 1862 issue of Douglass Monthly, Frederick Douglass said, "that ABRAHAM LINCOLN is not more fit for the place he hold than was JAMES BUCHANAN, and that the latter was no more the miserable tool of traitors and rebels that former is allowing himself to be."
Frederick Douglass said:
Illogical and unfair as Mr. Lincoln's statements are, they are nevertheless quite in keeping with his whole course from the beginning of his administration up to this day, and confirm the painful conviction that though elected as an anti-slavery man by Republican and Abolition voters, Mr. Lincoln is quite a genuine representative of American prejudice and Negro hatred and far more concerned for the preservation of slavery, and the favor of the Border States, than for any sentiment of magnanimity or principle of justice and humanity"
The Life and Writing of Frederick Douglass, edited by Philip S. Foner, 4 Vols, New York, 1955, vol 3, page 268
Frederick Douglass said:
With the single exception of the quesiton of slavery extension, Mr. Lincoln proposes no measure which can bring him into antagonistic collision with the traffickers in human flesh, either in the States or in the District of Columbia .... Slavery will be as safe, and safer, in the Union under such a President, than it can be under any President of a Southern Confederacy"
The Life and Writing of Frederick Douglass, edited by Philip S. Foner, 4 Vols, New York, 1955, vol 2, page 527
Wendell Phillips said Lincoln was "not an Abolitionist, hardly an anti-slavery man."
Liberal Republicans said Lincoln's policies prolonged the war and increased the cost and casualties.
Said Charles Sumner:
It is hard to read of all this blood & sacrifice, & to think that it might have been averted -- which I most solemnly believe"
The Selected Letters of Charles Sumner, edited by Beverly Wilson Palmer, Vol. 2, Boston, 1990, page 124
Said Sumner, Lincoln's "delays tended to prolong the war" and "if ever the account is impartially balanced he & the Secy of State must answer for much treasure & bloodshed"
The Selected Letter of Charles Sumner, edited by Beverly Wilson Palmer, Vol. 2, Boston, 1990, page 306
Senator Trumbull said a better president might have won the war "in half the time, and with half the loss of blood and treasure."
Quoted in The Life of Lyman Trumbull, Horace White, New York, 1913, page 428. To Judge Stephen Douglas, the lord god abraham said:
When we shall get Mexico, I don't know whether the Judge will be in favor of the Mexican people that we get with it settling that question for themselves and all others; because we know the Judge has a great horror for mongrels, and I understand that the people of Mexico are most decidedly a race of mongrels. I understand that there is not more than one person out there out of eight who is pure white, and I suppose from the Judge's previous declaration that when we get Mexico or any considerable portion of it, that he will be in favor of these mongrels settling the question, which would bring him somewhat into collision with his horror of an inferior race.
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy P. Basler, 11 vols, Rutgers, 1955, vol. 3, page 235
[italics added]
In a Carlinville speech, according to the Carlinville Democrat, Lincoln started thus:
"He said the question is often asked, why this fuss about n-----s?"
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy P. Basler, 11 vols, Rutgers, 1955, vol. 3, page 77
The answer, according to the lord god lincoln:
"Sustain these men and Negro equality will be abundant, as every white laborer will have occasion to regret when he is elbowed from his plow or his anvil by slave n-----s"
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy P. Basler, 11 vols, Rutgers, 1955, vol. 3, pp. 77-8 [elision added to the N-word which Lincoln used like Mark Fuhrman.]
In Elwood, Kansas, a year later, the great lincoln said:
"People often ask, why make such a fuss about a few n-----s?"
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy P. Basler, 11 vols, Rutgers, 1955, vol. 3, page 495
Lincoln saw fit, to the dismay of Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, to interrupt a White House discussion of the tragically high union mortality rate to tell a group of English visitors a story about "darky" arithmetic.
Reminiscenses of Abraham Lincoln by Distinguised Men of His Time, Allen T. Rice, New York, 1888, pp. 286-8
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln are available at:
http://www.hti.umich.edu/l/lincoln/
For the below letter, just search on the N-word.
This is Lincoln, the lawyer, at work.
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865.: Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 2.
To Newton Deming and George P. Strong [1] Springfield, May 25, 1857.
Messrs. N.D. & G.P. Strong
Gentlemen
Yours of the 22nd is just received. The admiralty case now stands on appeal to the circuit court and consequently, can only be tried by Judge McLean; and I understand he will remain here only one week, commencing the first Monday of June. Of course, the other side will press for a hearing during that week.
I have just been to see Stuart & Edwards and they suggest that you see the plantiff's lawyer in St. Louis (I forget his name) and make an arrangement with him as to a day of taking up the case, and notify us.
I do not think any defence has been presented based on the fact of Messrs Page & Bacon [2] having purchased under the Deed of Trust. Quere. Does not the Libellants right, attach to the specific thing---this case---regardless of who may own them?
There is no longer any difficult question of jurisdiction in the Federal courts; they have jurisdiction in all possible cases, except such as might redound to the benefit of a ``n****r'' in some way.
Seriously, I wish you to prepare, on the question jurisdiction as well as you can; for I fear the later decisions are against us. I understand they have some new Admiralty Books here, but I have not examined them.
Yours truly
A. LINCOLN
Annotation
[1] ALS, IHi. Newton D. Strong married Matilda R. Edwards, eldest daughter of Hon. Cyrus Edwards, Alton, Illinois. Strong later moved to St. Louis and set up a law practice.
[2] Daniel D. Page and Henry D. Bacon were bankers and merchants in St. Louis.
[elision of N-word added]
On January 5, 1836 the Honorable Abraham Lincoln, then a 26-year old representative, voted for a resolution which stated in part:
"Resolved, That the elective franchise should be kep pure from contamination by the admission of colored votes."
That's Abe preventing pollution of the ballot box.
Lincoln at Worcester, Massachusetts, September 1848, referring to the killing of abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy in Illinois:
"I have heard you have abolitionists here. We have a few in Illinois and we shot one the other day"
Herndon's Informants, edited by Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis, Urbana 1998, p. 681
Said Congressman John B. Alley of Massachusetts:
"many of the most distinguished men of the country, who were in daily intercourse with him [Lincoln], thought but little of his capacity as a statesman. And while entirely true, it is hardly to be believed that those in both houses of Congress who knew him best had so little confidence in his judgment and ability to administer the government that few of the members of the Senate and of the House were in favor of his renomination for the Presidency in 1864"
Reminiscenses of Abraham Lincoln by Distinguised Men of His Time, Allen T. Rice, New York, 1888, pp 573-4
Lincoln's "I Have a White Dream"
Seventh and Last Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Alton, Illinois
October 15, 1858
Now irrespective of the moral aspect of this question as to whether there is a right or wrong in enslaving a negro, I am still in favor of our new Territories being in such a condition that white men may find a home---may find some spot where they can better their condition---where they can settle upon new soil and better their condition in life. [Great and continued cheering.] I am in favor of this not merely, (I must say it here as I have elsewhere,) for our own people who are born amongst us, but as an outlet for free white people everywhere, the world over---in which Hans and Baptiste and Patrick, and all other men from all the world, may find new homes and better their conditions in life. [Loud and long continued applause.]
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865.: Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 3, p. 312
[bold face added, italics in original]
I most certainly did.
"I must say, and I am proud to say, that I never was treated by any one with more kindness and cordiality than were shown to me by that great and good man, Abraham Lincoln, by the grace of God president of the United States for four years more. He took my little book, and with the same hand that signed the death-warrant of slavery, wrote as follows:
For Aunty Sojourner Truth
October 29, 1864"
Gee whiz, Lincoln -was- elected president -twice-. Some of his contemporaries must have liked him pretty well.
Walt
Uhhhhhhhhh...........see #1297?
Walt
Not exactly a revelation. President Lincoln always made clear that his first duty was to save the Union.
Walt
Well, that was enough to cause the war, after all.
This is no secret. President Lincoln was always for talking and comporomise before he was for fighting and killing. The measures you condemn him for were part of that.
You seem to be throwing up your hands in disgust because President Lincoln's actions don't meet today's sensibilities. That's just sorta silly.
But the question of slavery expansion..........
As John Stuart Mill wrote at the time: "Abolitionists, in America, mean those who do not keep within the Constitution; the Republican party neither aim nor profess to aim at this object. . . . If they have not taken arms against slavery, they have against its extension. And they know . . . that this amounts to the same thing. The day when slavery can no longer extend itself, is the day of its doom. The slave owners know this, and it is the cause of their fury."
All your pretension to outrage won't impress anyone who knows the record.
Walt
Well, you can fool some of the people all the time, that's true.
Walt
Are you going to say you never heard of this incident?
"Lincoln had Douglass shown in at once. "Here is my friend Douglass," the President announced when Douglass entered the room. "I am glad to see you," Lincoln told him. "I saw you in the crowd today, listening to my [second inaugural] address." He added, "there is no man in the country whose opinion I value more than yours. I want to know what you think of it." Douglass said he was impressed: he thought it "a sacred effort." "I am glad you liked it." Lincoln said, and he watched as Douglass passed down the [receiving] line. It was the first inaugural reception in the history of the Republic in which an American President had greeted a free black man and solicited his opinion."
--"with Malice Towards None", p. 412 by Stephen Oates
Walt
"Finally a great party was organized for the purpose of obtaining the administration of the Government, with the avowed object of using its power for the total exclusion of the slave States from all participation in the benefits of the public domain acquired by al1 the States in common, whether by conquest or purchase; of surrounding them entirely by States in which slavery should be prohibited; of those rendering the property in slaves so insecure as to be comparatively worthless' and thereby annihilating in effect property worth thousands of millions of dollars. This party, thus organized, succeeded in the month of November last in the election of its candidate for the Presidency of the United States...
-- Jefferson Davis, 1861
Hmmmm........Jefferson Davis seems to have thought that Lincoln was an anti-slavery man.
Walt
Not a secret.
This letter to A.D. Hodges was published during the war:
"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. And yet I have never understood that the presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act upon this judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I took, that I would, to the utmost of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. I could not take the office without taking the oath. Nor was it my view that I might take an oath to get power, and break the oath in using the power. I understood too, that in ordinary civil administration this oath even forbade me to practically indulge my primary abstract judgment on the moral question of slavery. I have publically declared this many times, and in many ways. And I aver that, to this day, I have done no official act in mere deference to my abstract judgment and feeling on slavery."
A. Lincoln, 4/4/64
Walt
I can quote at least one. Too bad for Wlat that he's not exactly the kind of guy that most sane people want to have on their side...
"The workingmen of Europe feel sure that, as the American War of Independence initiated a new era of ascendancy for the middle class, so the American Antislavery War will do for the working classes. They consider it an earnest of the epoch to come that it fell to the lot of Abraham Lincoln, the single-minded son of the working class, to lead his country through the matchless struggle for the rescue of an enchained race and the reconstruction of a social world." - Karl Marx, letter to Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 29, 1864