Lincoln said, "in our greedy chase to make profit of the Negro, let us beware, lest we 'cancel and tear to pieces' even the white man's charter of freedom"
Lincoln, CW 2:276
Translation for the intellectually challenged:
The White Man's Charter of Freedom = The Declaration of Independence
THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION ON SLAVERY
Article 1, Section 2. Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.
Article 1, Section. 9, Clause 1. The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.
Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3. No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.
Article 5. ... Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.
More quotes from Lincoln:
[CW = Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln]
Lincoln said he was in favor of the new territories "being in such a condition that white men may find a home."
Lincoln, Alton, Illinois, 10/15/1862
"His democracy was a White mans democracy. It did not contain Negroes." Oscar Sherwin
Lincoln's dream did not contain Indians or even Mexicans who he referred to as "mongrels."
Lincoln, CW 3:234-5
"Resolved, That the elective franchise should be kept pure from contamination by the admission of colored votes."
That got Lincoln's vote, January 5, 1836.
Lincoln wanted the territories to be "the happy home of teeming millions of free, white prosperous people, and no slave among them"
Lincoln, 1854, CW 2:249
The territories "should be kept open for the homes of free white people"
Lincoln, 1856, CW 2:363
"We want them [the territories] for the homes of free white people."
Lincoln, CW 3:311
If slavery was allowed to spread to the territories, he said "Negro equality will be abundant, as every White laborer will have occasion to regret when he is elbowed from his plow or his anvil by slave n-----s"
Lincoln, CW 3:78 [Lincoln uses the N-word without elision]
"Is it not rather our duty to make labor more respectable by preventing all black competition, especially in the territories?"
Lincoln, CW 3:79
Try Jefferson Davis or Robert Lee.
"We recognize the negro as God and God's Book and God's Law in nature tells us to recognize him - our inferior, fitted expressly for servitude. Freedom only injures the slave. The innate stamp of inferiority is beyond the reach of change. You cannot transform the negro into anything one-tenth as useful or as good as what slavery enables him to be." -- Jefferson Davis, March 1861
"Considering the relation of master and slave, controlled by humane laws and influenced by Christianity and an enlightened public sentiment, as the best that can exist between the white and black races while intermingled as at present in this country, I would deprecate any sudden disturbance of that relation unless it be necessary to avert a greater calamity to both." -- Robert Lee, January 1865
The Founding Fathers were able to draw a distinction in terms of sex and skin color because they did not fully recognize the equality in humanity of women and people of color. The issue of slavery was the cause of much contention during the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, and slavery remained an acceptable institution as a concession for the support of the Southern States; however, just because the Founding Fathers failed to fully recognize their humanity as equal doesn't mean these groups were devoid of Rights. They had their Rights, the State suppressed the exercise of them.
As a testament to the Founding Fathers' genius, however, recognition of the equality in humanity of women and people of color was eventually won, and the full, free exercise of God-given Rights became the norm for all.
If we believe that Rights are granted to us by the State, then they are subject to the whim and will of politicians (as is the case with the "living document" Constitution, where Rights are constantly being redefined by radical judges). If we believe that Rights are an essential component of our humanity, we CANNOT condone the willful suppression of Rights, particularly in a form so egregious as slavery, by one facet of the population on another facet of the population.
The fact that slavery was "legal" does not make it right or just, or even, in hindsight, Constitutional.
Many people believe that the same principle applies to the unborn. They are being denied their God-given right to live (which, by the way, is not specifically stated in the Constitution, but is a founding principle in the DoI) in the "legal" industry of abortion, to the tune of 1.3 million a year. Why? Because the humanity of the unborn has been called into question.
As an aside, I wish America would stop apologizing for slavery. It happened, as many other horrible things happened in the past and still happen all over the world today. America paid a very heavy price eliminating it, and the folks that want to continue shoving it in our faces need to take their fight elsewhere (like the Sudan!).
Peace.