"If all earthly power were given me," said Lincoln in a speech delivered in Peoria, Illinois, on October 16, 1854, "I should not know what to do, as to the existing institution [of slavery]. My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia, to their own native land." After acknowledging that this plan's "sudden execution is impossible," he asked whether freed blacks should be made "politically and socially our equals?" "My own feelings will not admit of this," he said, "and [even] if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass of white people will not ... We can not, then, make them equals."
Ahhhhhhh...if wishes were horses, the slaves would have all been gone whether they liked it or not. But since "sudden execution is impossible," he would have made it happen sooner or later, I have no doubt. Remember; he made Liberia a recognized entity in 1862.
Now, how do you re-interpret these remarks to insist that Lincoln did NOT want to send them all? I just can't wait to hear THIS one.
We can not, then, make them equals."
Could he even if he wanted to? If Lincoln could wave a magic wand and make blacks free and equals, what would the reaction be throughout the country? North, and especially South?
Ahhhhhhh...if wishes were horses, the slaves would have all been gone whether they liked it or not.
Or if the wishes on the other side had been granted they all would be property. Again, is that preferable to you?
But since "sudden execution is impossible," he would have made it happen sooner or later, I have no doubt.
Of course you don't.
Remember; he made Liberia a recognized entity in 1862.
Thirteen years after Great Britain had recognized Liberian sovereignty. That made Liberia something that the confederacy never achieved, status as a sovereign nation.
Now, how do you re-interpret these remarks to insist that Lincoln did NOT want to send them all? I just can't wait to hear THIS one.
Reading the whole speech would help.