People need to read their history— not some PR movie crap from Spielberg. Get down to the level of people, regular people of the day-— who knew he was just a manipulative politician from Kentucky, whose type they were quite familiar with. Deo Vindice.
If that’s your thinking, you condemn the Republican Party, founded on anti-slavery with Lincoln as its first candidate.
I was trying to find the short-snippet that is often tossed on the internet to show that running for election, during the Lincoln-Douglass debates, the Lincoln quote showing him to be a racist, and therefore assuming he was not against slavery.
In finding the entire speech - the snippet doesn’t provide the complete (complex) views. Lincoln was a racist. But he was against slavery. (He also had a decent sense of humor.)
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/the-lincoln-douglas-debates-4th-debate-part-i/
Excerpt of Lincoln speaking:
“....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 every thing.
I do not understand that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. [Cheers and laughter.] My understanding is that I can just let her alone. I am now in my fiftieth year, and I certainly never have had a black woman for either a slave or a wife. So it seems to me quite possible for us to get along without making either slaves or wives of negroes.”