Posted on 03/05/2011 4:17:47 PM PST by FatherofFive
McLEAN, Va. Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address has inspired Americans for generations, but consider his jarring remarks in 1862 to a White House audience of free blacks, urging them to leave the U.S. and settle in Central America.
"For the sake of your race, you should sacrifice something of your present comfort for the purpose of being as grand in that respect as the white people," Lincoln said, promoting his idea of colonization: resettling blacks in foreign countries on the belief that whites and blacks could not coexist in the same nation.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
interesting ping
“Yea, thats helpful.’
It was the least I could do.
Well, well, well. FR’s own branch of the John Wilkes Booth Society shows up!
Unfortunately, with the emancipation proclamation, Lincoln only freed some slaves. The ones outside his jurisdiction. He freed not one slave in “the Union.”
The point isn't that Abraham Lincoln wasn't colorblind. the point is that nobody was colorblind back then - if indeed they are now.If all these liberals who prattle about inclusiveness were half the paragons of virtue in that regard as they criticize conservatives for not being, the typical black - being immersed in a sea of non-black liberals, would meet and marry someone of a different race. But that doesn't happen nearly to the extent which the statistics of potential mates would suggest.
I believe it is much deeper than that.
Many countries in Africa were colonised, while colonised they became successful. When turned over to the native population, they went down the toilet.
Much like when Gaza was handed to the Palestinians with it’s business’s intact,It took maybe two weeks to destroy those business’s.
I agree it isn’t race, it’s cultural.
Mr Page, a Fellow of The Queens College, Oxford, insisted that it was wrong to conclude Lincoln was a racist. Blacks had been lynched during recent race riots in New York and the president was motivated by a fear that the freeing of black slaves would cause serious racial strife, said Mr Page.
In addition, Lincoln always made clear the emigration would be voluntary, he said. ‘I dont think it was ever about any personal dislike for blacks,’ Mr Page said.
Naw, it’s just a phunny Photoshop, which became an Internet meme.
Now, if you want downright silly...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X58RPS665V0
‘He freed not one slave in the Union.’
Under the Constitution he did not have the power to free slaves in states not in insurrection.
Duh. That’s why its Monrovia, not Lincolnia. My point is that one need not be consumed with hatred against blacks to have thought that reverse colonization was a good idea.
“Duh. Thats why its Monrovia, not Lincolnia. “
Right. And therefore there is no obvious connection between Lincoln and Liberia.
Many people are surprised when they learn that Lincoln supported removing American blacks to Africa and Central America, since Lincoln gets presented as if he were some sort of early Martin Luther King dreaming of a race neutral utopia. He was an opponent of slavery. His ideas on the races getting along together was another matter.
I also felt that way in high school. Over the years, though, I've come to realize that Jefferson's America wasn't perfect.
And it probably couldn't last. Self-described "Jeffersonians" didn't escape the kind of reproaches they made against their opponents.
Nor was Jefferson's vision the same as George Washington's. Washington valued union and had a stronger sense of nationhood than his romantic Secretary of State did.
Years of experience with Confederate sympathizers have convinced me that they don't have the whole truth either. Keep living and learning and maybe you'll come around too.
That is a very humble opinion indeed. I thought you were going to go on learning.
Jefferson bought and sold many slaves in his lifetime. He lived off their labor and only freed a few while he was alive or in his will. He had a knack for striking impressive moral poses but had real trouble following through. To the degree that Jefferson was anti-slavery his opposition was accompanied by a belief in colonization of freed slaves outside the US, the same belief that Lincoln is reproached for.
As he grew older, Jefferson came to view slavery as a North-South issue. For Jefferson, supporting "equal rights" for the South meant giving support to slaveowners. He could support the spread of slavery while believing that the extension of slavery would make it easier to eradicate that institution, which is not a view most thinking people would have accepted.
All this is sufficient evidence that Jefferson was not more opposed to slavery than Lincoln, who opposed the spread of slavery for years and eventually help to end slavery in the United States. This "our good Jefferson" versus "their bad Lincoln" thing is quite tiresome. Maybe a good starting point would be to recognize what they had in common, rather than simplistically setting them against each other as good and bad examples.
LOL, Wow, that is funny.
Answering two month old posts now, slaver?
Lovely way you describe my family there, punk!
rockrr, the skirt wearing little sissy. 3 cheers for Dixie
How could Lincoln expect Freed slaves to WANT to live with their former owners??
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.