There is always a big fuss made over Lincoln being “the great emancipator.” He is continually held up as an example of how this great president fought against the evils of slavery and worked on behalf of racial equality.
But is the picture painted of Lincoln by egalitarians the real Abraham Lincoln? One of the most important events in Lincoln’s career was the debate with Stephen Douglas. The Lincoln-Douglas debate was actually seven debates held throughout Illinois during the 1858 senatorial campaign. Most people being ignorant of the debate think the debate was about racial equality – that is Douglas favored slavery and thus white supremacy and Lincoln opposed slavery and favored equality.
The fact is that many of those who opposed slavery did so not because of their belief in racial equality but because they did not want the import of Negroes into their communities – via slavery. Part of this reason was because of the economic harm that is created for poor whites who were not able to find employment in face of the huge slave population. We find the same problem today due to illegal immigration even though they aren’t slaves.
Douglas supported what was known as “popular sovereignty.” That is, he held to the doctrine that each state had the constitutionally protected right to decide for its self whether it would be a slave or free state. The decision would be as a result of a general election.
The debates clearly show Lincoln’s position on slavery – he was against it. He didn’t want Negroes in America period. From the debate we have these following Lincoln quotes which you will never read about in the school classrooms today.
From Lincoln-Douglas Debate, published by Haldeman-Julius Company, Girard, Kansas 1923
Page 44 “I have no purpose to produce political and social equality. I am not in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes or of qualifying them to hold office or allowing them to intermarry with white people…I have never had the least apprehension that I or my friends would marry Negroes, even if there was no law to keep them from it…I will, to the very last, stand by the law of this state which forbids the marrying of white people with Negroes.”
Page 80 “I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which, in my judgment, will forever forbid their living together in perfect equality: and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there should be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the supremacy.”
Page 81 “I agree with Judge Douglas that he (Negroes) is not my equal in many respects, certainly not in color, and perhaps not in moral and intellectual endowment.”
From The Collected works of Abraham Lincoln, published 1953, Rutgers University Press in eight volumes.
Vol. II Pages 405-409 (Speech at Springfield, Illinois – June 26, 1857.
“Judge Douglas has said to you that he has not been able to get me to answer the question whether I am in favor of Negro citizenship. So far as I know, the Judge never asked me the question before (applause) He shall have no occasion to ever ask it again, for I tell him very frankly that I am not in favor of Negro citizenship. (renewed applause)…Now my opinion is that the different states have the power to make a Negro a citizen under the Constitution of the United States if they choose…If the state of Illinois had that power I should be opposed to the exercise of it. (cries of “good,” “good,” and applause)
Vol. II, page 281
Speech at Peoria, Illinois, October 16, 1854
In the course of his reply, Senator Douglas remarked, in substance, that he had always considered this government was made for the white people and not for the Negroes. Why, in point of mere fact, I think so, too.
Vol. III, page 399 Notes for speeches, September 1859
“Negro equality! Fudge!! How long, in the government of a God, great enough to make and maintain this Universe, shall there continue knaves to vend, and fools to gulp, so low a piece of demagoguism as this?”
It is not a matter of whether a person agrees with Lincoln or disagrees. the fact is that it is wrong to misrepresent Lincoln. He did not support Negro equality and it is wrong for egalitarians, civil right activists, liberals, conservatives and pseudo Christians to LIE to the public claiming he did.
People may not like what Lincoln said, but they cannot escape the fact that he said it. If anyone has a problem with these quotes – take it up with Mr. Lincoln, we just quoted the man!
The Civil war was not a war over slavery, rather a war over tariffs. (taxes on imports from Southern states to Northern states) Taking slavery away from Southern aristocrats was only a punishment placed on them by Lincoln. It was his earnest desire to not see the nation divided into small countries like Europe – fighting wars amongst themselves.
Lincoln did not hate the South. After the war was over he hoped to seal the breach and heal the wounds – uniting Northern and Southern families once again. At the same time, Lincoln had introduced the Lincoln Greenback. It was constitutional currency coined by Congress -not borrowed from unscrupulous bankers with interest having to be paid back. When Lincoln was shot by Booth – an agent of the Rothschild banking family – the South lost a friend. Instead of the South being treated fairly and welcomed back into the Union with open arms under Lincoln’s guidance, elitist industrialists sought to plunge the South into economic ruin for profit. Freed slaves became their unwitting tools of terror against white Southern families – and many times black families as well.
It is unfortunate that the truth is not widely known about Lincoln. Lincoln was president during a difficult time. Some view him as a politician working against white Southerners and they like that view. These types of people really believe that the Southerners were evil – black beating – villains. Others hate him because they also believe in that image of Lincoln – that he hated the South. These types of people often view Northerners as hateful, meddling, know it all, Negro loving race-mixers.
Neither view is correct. The civil war was just one more war that our people have found themselves caught up in due to the backroom manipulation of international finance. And as always, our sons and sometimes our daughters are considered worthless fodder for the war machine.
But, the truth is Lincoln believed in separation of the races. He believed it was God’s intention for the sons and daughters of Europe to be united in one great country under God. And though tensions still run high on both sides, we must unite, not according to geographical location, but according to our race and faith. Money should never tear our people apart. As Lincoln would have wanted, and as George Washington saw in a vision, our race must move on and reunite. The future of our children is at stake.