I hate to have to post the following:
“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway 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. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything.”
-Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois, September 18, 1858 (The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume III, pp. 145-146.) To be absolutely fair - and I want to be fair - we are going to have to have a national dialog about the future of the Lincoln Memorial.
Yup, statues have to go. I believe late in the war he was in favor of deportation, none of this 40 acres and a mule stuff
I think that as the war dragged on, and Lincoln became more familiar with the performance of black troops in the Union cause, he became more optimistic about their ability to be citizens. I don’t know if he ever went so far as to believe them equal, but I think he believed them deserving of equal rights.