Posted on 02/09/2007 7:22:48 PM PST by ChildOfThe60s
Honest Abe to go on trial - for racism
Daily Sun reports
Thursday, February 08, 2007
AURORA | The Community College of Aurora's professors will stage a mock trail that puts Abraham Lincoln on trial for racism at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10, at the college's Fine Arts building at 16000 E. CentreTech Parkway.
The trial is free and open to the public. Based on his speeches and written documents, teams for the prosecution and the defense assembled from the Community College of Aurora's criminal justice program and will try Lincoln to determine whether he was a racist and how his beliefs and attitudes influenced the course of the Civil War, Reconstruction and post-war society.
Call 303-739-6600 or visit www.auroralibrary.org.
Well, since he's a Republican, there's no need for a trial! He's guilty!
Why don't they try some Democratic politicians, like "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman? Heck, they don't have to go that far back! They can try Bobby Byrd!
You be the judge
"I am not nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races-that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race." - Abraham Lincoln
Good grief! Obviously, I've never paid much attention to ole Abe!
Abe Lincoln was a lobbyist for the railroad. That is how he got his connections and funding to run for president.
Haliburton ran a railroad? It's all starting to sound familiar
This was a political document used to keep England from siding with the Confederacy. It freed zero slaves except where the Union Army was standing at any point in time.
I'd be tempted to look at the Lincoln/Douglas Debates as Exhibit I.
Also no lesser a soldier of emancipation that Frederick Douglas delivered high praise to Lincoln after Lincoln's death. Douglas wasn't in the habit of letting anyone off the hook.
It's so chic to find fault with our predecessors. Most of us should be a bit more existential. I have often thought Lincoln's worst crime was he had the audacity to be a Republican. It was once said as common wisdom that nothing good ever came from Nazareth. The same "common wisdom" has applied for most of my life regarding the Republican Party.
Not many have here is another jewel, after him much touted Emancipation Proclamation
I have urged the colonization of the negroes, and I shall continue. My Emancipation Proclamation was linked with this plan. There is no room for two distinct races of white men in America, much less for two distinct races of whites and blacks.
I can conceive of no greater calamity than the assimilation of the negro into our social and political life as our equal....
Within twenty years we can peacefully colonize the negro and give him our language, literature, religion, and system of government under conditions in which he can rise to the full measure of manhood. This he can never do here. We can never attain the ideal union our fathers dreamed of, with millions of an alien, inferior race among us, whose assimilation is neither possible nor desirable.
Abraham Lincoln, August 14, 1862
Interesting generalization. Hopefully you're brainiac child has more sense than his/her mom/dad.
No fair! You can't bring facts to this debate. It's not nearly as much fun as people getting to spout off whatever random and baseless "facts" they create in their heads.
That's odd. I (proudly) went to public school and can think for myself, too. The public school bashing on FR is really lame and old, to say the least, akin to liberals screaming that they have superior skills and talents because they went to Harvard or Yale. But, hey, at least they are private colleges!
Neato, I'd love to have this debate with my coworkers next week. Oh wait, I have this pesky annoyance called a "job", during which I have to perform "work", which results in "accomplishing something".
It must be nice to be an academic.
No. It didn't free a single slave in the US. It only applied to "states in rebellion". The English ridiculed it as freeing the slaves where Lincoln didn't have power to enforce the act, and keeping the slaves in bondage where Lincoln had the power to free them.
Slaves in the Union remained slaves until the passage of the 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments during the Johnson administration.
By today's standards 99% of Americans of The War of Northern Aggression Era were "racists".
That was a totally different time and people can't be fairly judged by today's more "enlightened" views.
Well, despite being a racist, Lincoln did play a big role in freeing the slaves. This was more than most of his contemporary politicians did.
I agree to a point. The end of the Civil War.
I'm no stranger to Lincoln history.
Would the tards prosecuting Lincoln today find that the Gettysburg Address was a damnable speech?
Considering the fact that blacks were slaves in the south it's a little ridiculous to call Lincoln a racist. That's the deepest darkest pitch black kettle calling the sheet kinda greyish.
LOL. Next time you (try to) insult someone else's intelligence, perhaps you should brush up on your grammar. Hope your kid learned his somewhere else.
In years past,while reading the Lincoln Douglas Fourth Joint Debate , Charleston, September 18, 1858 I was amazed at how the racism of Lincoln had been ignored and glossed over through the years, and not discussed in American history classes.
It appears he deserves the title "Honest Abe". - Tom
Lincoln was as much a product of his time as any other important figure of his day. But he was always against slavery.
Lincoln's racism is well documented. The question is the effect his decisions had on constitutional sovereignty and this confederation of states. I hope there is a follow-up on the trial proceedings.
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.