Lot of that going around. But here I posted parts of Douglass's tribute because I thought that you and Pelham might be trying to imply that Douglass had no respect for Lincoln. Surely you two were not trying to imply that, were you?
I never implied Douglass lacked respect for Lincoln. I said he knew him, ie. he understood Lincoln's primary political objectives were to preserve the union and prevent slavery's spread to the territories, not to abolish it. He also understood that slavery was a huge political headache for Lincoln and that he would be content just to ship black people off to foreign shores to fend for themselves. Lincoln did not openly support a 13th Amendment until after his re-election, when it became clear that the union would be victorious and resettlement was not an option.