You are aware Lincoln said, "I will say, then, that I am not, nor have ever been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races ... I am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."
I should like to know if taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle and making exceptions to it where will it stop. If one man says it does not mean a negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man? If that declaration is not the truth, let us get the Statute book, in which we find it and tear it out! Who is so bold as to do it! If it is not true let us tear it out! let us stick to it then, let us stand firmly by it then.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/07/the-eternal-meaning-of-independence-day-2.php
[ Lincoln who based his anti-slavery ideas on the Declaration of Independence
You are aware Lincoln said, “I will say, then, that I am not, nor have ever been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races ... I am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.” ]
You are aware that Fredrick Douglas once tried to get inn the white house and when being turned away and almost thrown out it was Lincoln who said “That man is a firend of mine, let him stay” and they both talked for a while and that Fredrick Douglas considered Lincoln a friend and vice versa right?
You are aware that Lincoln’s view reflected the culture of white american at the time. And that a majority of the abolishionists shared that view as well. And that several generations later that view faded away to be replaced with the more correct view as more and more people (especially in the north) viewed blacks as equals in ability and spiritually.
You are aware that you are comparing the past using the “lens of the present” which has 20/20 hindisght.
" 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. 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."
IOW, Lincoln was by our standards a racist. However, he was a racist more than willing to give the black man the basic rights of liberty. And he specifically based these opinions on the Declaration of Independence, which is what the article said.
Racism, like most things, runs on a spectrum from slight to extreme. By our standards Lincoln was probably in the middle at the time he gave this speech, with his opponents over on the extreme end. There is good evidence he moved towards the slight end during the war.