No, my only point was that H.L. Menken's claim, that “it was the Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves,” is flawed because the Confederates certainly didn't want black people to govern themselves.
Idabilly posted an example of how most yankees felt/feel about blacks by posting the Great Emancipator's own racist words.
Lincoln, and the North as a whole, were terribly racist in the 1860s as judged by the standards of today. But the South was far worse: many southern blacks tried to escape from the South to the North, but I know of none who went the other way.
Native Americans?
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/scruggs4.html
Jews?
http://www.jewishmag.com/110mag/civilwar/civilwar.htm
http://thesouthernamerican.org/stardavid.html
http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/r/rosen-confederates.html
http://www.moc.org/site/DocServer/Microsoft_Word_-_Jewish_Confederates.pdf?docID=927
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/grant.html
“The Jews, as a class violating every regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department and also department orders, are hereby expelled from the department [the “Department of the Tennessee,”
General Grant:
“no Jews are to be permitted to travel on the railroad southward from any point.”
http://www.jewish-history.com/civilwar/shockoe.htm
The Hebrew Confederate cemetery on Shockoe Hill in Richmond, Virginia, is the only Jewish military cemetery in the world outside the state of Israel. The cemetery is maintained by Congregation Beth Ahabah.
First of all, blacks were not only not citizens of the Confederacy but they were not citizens of the Union, either. So, your statement is flawed.
Lincoln, and the North as a whole, were terribly racist in the 1860s as judged by the standards of today. But the South was far worse