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To: WhiskeyPapa; Ditto; rdf; davidjquackenbush
(*sigh*) I'm just as fed-up with Tommy as the rest of you all are, but I noticed he has ratcheted up the rhetoric at the expense of the truth. Again,

...Lincoln’s persistent denunciations of racial equality, and his lifelong desire to deport all the black people in America to Africa, Haiti, or Central America,

Now according to my dictionary deportation is the forcible removal of someone against their will. The only major political figures in the United States that I am aware of who advocated the forcible removal of free blacks were Stephen Douglas and Jefferson Davis. Have any of you come across a Lincoln quote that backs up Tommy D's claim?

2 posted on 06/27/2002 10:08:11 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: Non-Sequitur
Have any of you come across a Lincoln quote that backs up Tommy D's claim?

Just the opposite. Lincoln always quilfied his support for Colonization as voluntary, as did Henry Clay, James Madison and every other supporter of the American Colonization Society. They could not understand why a black would even want to stay in this country, North or South (and frankly in the mid 19th century, I doubt I could have understood it either) but they were willing to have them stay if they so chose.

7 posted on 06/27/2002 10:52:57 AM PDT by Ditto
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To: Non-Sequitur
Merriam Webster's Collegiate disagrees with you. Were you relying on your own vocabulary or did you look it up? Here's their version. deportation: the removal from a country of an alien whose presence is unlawful or prejudicial.

Looks like that covers most usages. If you wish to stress the forced method, you might try an adjective. Of course that steals your thunder and leaves very little of the narrow point you were attempting to make.

Obviously any contemplated method of colonization would have to have had the legal system behind it, if for no other reason than to account for expenses and costs. Slaves or new ex-slaves could easily have been declared aliens - they were not citizens at the time - and the proponents of colonization certainly considered their presence in North America prejudicial. Again, voluntary, forced, coerced, or encouraged is a matter for an adjective, the term "deportation" just won't carry that load.

10 posted on 06/27/2002 10:33:31 PM PDT by FirstFlaBn
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