[Gianni]

I overheard two guys talking in a bathroom at a convenience store across the street from a Black Panther rally. They said, without question, that the Butler story is true.

By continuing to push opinion from an AOL chat room --you-- are not credible.

I know not enough --dashes-- or *stars* to get the meaning across.

[WhiskeyPapa]

By continuing to push opinion from an AOL chat room --you-- are not credible.

I didn't.

I said I saw it on the ACW moderated NEWSGROUP, which is not affiliated in any way with AOL.

Dr. Neely DID take issue with Butler's story.

See: "Abraham Lincoln and Black Colonization: Benjamin Butler's Spurious Testimony," CIVIL WAR HISTORY 25 (March 1979), 77-83, by Mark Neely.

President Lincoln NEVER supported deportation of blacks. He worked hard for the passage of both the 13th and 14th amendments, insisting that the former be a plank in the 1864 Republican Party platform even though he though he was surely losing, and despite the fact that public opinion in the north was opposed to it.

President Lincoln supported full rights for black soldiers; he said so, and no spurious story 25 years later can have any credibility in the face of Lincoln's own words that blacks were to have the full benefit of their liberty.

Walt