What a dishonest comment. I am comfortable in acknowledging the religious aspects of their argument. You, however, simply dismiss their written words as being of no consequence.
Nevertheless, I can point to the words of Mr. Lincoln in his first debate with Stephen Douglas:
. I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and the black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality, and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position. I have never said anything to the contrary, but I hold that, notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. [Loud cheers.] I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas he is not my equal in many respects-certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowment. But in the right to eat the bread, without the leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man. [Great applause.]
The point here being, although Lincoln makes no bones about his position that "the negro" is fully entitled to all of the natural rights he enjoyed, he balanced it against a claim of racial superiority based on physical traits -- an essentially evolutionary argument.
It is fascinating that Lincoln used as a premise for his claim of racial superiority a theory that was not to be published until a year later. It is curious that Lincoln did not use his precognative abilities to avoid his assasination.
Dude, check the date of the debate: August 21, 1858. Darwin did not publish until 1859.