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4CJ,

Thanks for posting. That is very interesting. I have read some of Lincoln's other words on Colonization and am aware that he like many of the anti-slave segment had long supported colonization as a solution. But I had never seen this one before. Do you have a link or IP address for the site this is from so I can bookmark it?

Two thoughts came to mind while reading it.

First, this was probably the first time in history that any American black leaders were ever consulted by a President or high government official on any issue. I don't think Lincoln had even meet with Fredrick Douglass at this point, but I could be wrong. What is even more amazing is that he was asking for their support for his plan, not dictating something for them. The part not mentioned here was that Lincoln at the same time was talking up the idea to get authorization to compensate slave owners for their 'property'. He hoped the combination of compensation and a plan to colonize blacks outside the US would overcome Southern objections to emancipation on both economic and social grounds. Much of the propaganda from the Fire Eaters was of the 'horrors' of having millions of free blacks mingling with white society. That propaganda worked equally well in the North and the South among people who thought slavery was wrong, but feared the results of ending slavery.

The second thought was what would the US be like today if his plan had been implemented.
How many freed blacks would have taken the offer?
How different would we be as a country today?
If Lincoln had lived, would he have resurrected this plan in his 2nd term and avoided the Klan, the 14th Amendment and reconstruction?
Would we be a more united country without the 100 years of racial division that followed the Civil War and still lingers today?
Or would we have missed some crucial element and diversity that lead to our 20th century greatness?

It's very interesting to ponder. Thanks for the post.

Only have a moment - the url had something to do with the Colonization Society, but can't remember if it was at memory.loc.gov or where :o(

If I do find it I will pass it on. I previously had a slightly different version (just the speech itself), but this was transcribed directly from the paper in question, replete with editorial headings that obviously were not in the draft submitted by the White House to the paper.

Just as an aside, I'd like to commend you for your post. I know you and I don't debate often - I certainly don't agree with your position often, but I do respect well-reasoned and articulate posts.

Consider the treatment that free black people endured in the south prior to the Civil War. In many ways it was almost as bad as conditions for free blacks up north. Now consider the treatment of free blacks down south in the hundred years following the Civil War. Lincoln was no fool. He had seen what public opinion towards blacks was like up north and knew what the black population was in for down south once they were free. By encouraging emigration he quite possibly acting on the desire to spare them the treatment he knew they were in for, and to keep the darker predjudices of the people, north and south, from coming out.

There is a short treatment of this meeting in Battle Cry of Freeodm, pp 508-10, and a longer and more interesting one in David H. Donald's Lincoln, pp 366-9. Both note that Lincoln had long supported some kind of voluntary colonization, and both suggest a political windfall to Lincoln of undermining the expected Northern anti-Negro reaction to the Emancipation Proclamation, which he was waiting to issue.

Regards,

Richard F.