New book sheds new light on Lincoln's racial views

[The Straight Story]

McLEAN, Va. (AP) -- Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address has inspired Americans for generations, but consider his jarring remarks in 1862 to a White House audience of free blacks, urging them to leave the U.S. and settle in Central America.

"For the sake of your race, you should sacrifice something of your present comfort for the purpose of being as grand in that respect as the white people," Lincoln said, promoting his idea of colonization: resettling blacks in foreign countries on the belief that whites and blacks could not coexist in the same nation.

Lincoln went on to say that free blacks who envisioned a permanent life in the United States were being "selfish" and he promoted Central America as an ideal location "especially because of the similarity of climate with your native land - thus being suited to your physical condition."

As the nation celebrates the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's first inauguration Friday, a new book by a researcher at George Mason University in Fairfax makes the case that Lincoln was even more committed to colonizing blacks than previously known. The book, "Colonization After Emancipation," is based in part on newly uncovered documents that authors Philip Magness and Sebastian Page found at the British National Archives outside London and in the U.S. National Archives.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_LINCOLN_COLONIZATION?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=news_generic.htm

[louis-t]

1. I remember a '70s show..."Room 222" I think, dealt with this.

The students did some digging and were shocked to find this out.

[verges]

2. I remember that as well.

My father, who was an amatuer Lincoln and Civil War scholar, said that their depiction was about right.

[GSLevel9]

3. of course...

Many of us have known this for years.

There is this fantasy, fairy tale depiction of the humble country man FIGHTING to ensure equality between men.

BULLSHIT.

Lincoln was a half witted bumbling fool until he became a stubborn, obstinate butcher. Some have called him the 19th Century Shrub.

Another of Lincoln's quotes from his greatest hits album:

"If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union."

Translation... I don't give a SHIT about the slaves but the slave topic is great for political influence. If I need to dangle the slavery carrot in front of Northeast Republicans to garner political power and support for my war... it's OK.

145 years of "Victors writing History"

sigh.....

[coalition_unwilling]

6. "Lincoln was a half witted bumbling fool" - that quote really says it all. Welcome to my Ignore list

[GSLevel9]

7. ignore list works better than debate? nt

[AngryOldDem]

8. That quote exactly sums up his feelings on slavery.

So the outrage here is beyond me.

Everything was on the table for Lincoln in terms of saving the Union.

[Hannah Bell]

13. cherry-picking uncontextualized quotes doesn't give an honest picture, e.g.

Lincoln wrote to Joshua Speed in 1855:

How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except negroes." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics." When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty — to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be take pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy .<6>

to James C. Conkling of August 26, 1863

You say you will not fight to free negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for you; but, no matter. Fight you, then exclusively to save the Union. I issued the proclamation on purpose to aid you in saving the Union. Whenever you shall have conquered all resistance to the Union, if I shall urge you to continue fighting, it will be an apt time, then, for you to declare you will not fight to free negroes.

I thought that in your struggle for the Union, to whatever extent the negroes should cease helping the enemy, to that extent it weakened the enemy in his resistance to you. Do you think differently? I thought that whatever negroes can be got to do as soldiers, leaves just so much less for white soldiers to do, in saving the Union. Does it appear otherwise to you? But negroes, like other people, act upon motives. Why should they do any thing for us, if we will do nothing for them? If they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by the strongest motive—even the promise of freedom. And the promise being made, must be kept.

***

The question of when Lincoln abandoned colonization, if ever, has aroused considerable debate among historians, and continues unresolved to this day.<17> The government funded no more colonies after the rescue of the Ile a Vache survivors in early 1864, and Congress repealed most of the colonization funding that July.

Whether Lincoln's opinion had changed is unknown, as he left no written statements on the subject in the last two years of his presidency. A entry in the diary of presidential secretary John Hay dated July 2, 1864 says that Lincoln had "sloughed off" colonization, though without much elaboration.<18> In a later report, General Benjamin F. Butler claimed that Lincoln approached him in 1865 a few days before his assassination, to talk about reviving colonization in Panama.<19> Historians have long debated the validity of Butler's account, as it was written many years after the fact and Butler was prone to exaggeration of his own exploits as a general.<20> Recently discovered documents prove that Butler and Lincoln did indeed meet on April 11, 1865, though whether and to what extent they talked about colonization is not recorded except in Butler's account.<21> On that same day, Lincoln gave a speech supporting a form of limited suffrage for blacks (see next section).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln_and_slavery.


Lincoln began his public career by claiming that he was "antislavery" -- against slavery's expansion, but not calling for immediate emancipation. However, the man who began as "antislavery" eventually issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in those states that were in rebellion. He vigorously supported the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery throughout the United States, and, in the last speech of his life, he recommended extending the vote to African Americans.

It is also unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given to the colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers.

http://www.nps.gov/liho/historyculture/slavery.htm

[GSLevel9]

15. Lincoln said many things to many people.

But we can be sure that his first and foremost desire was to retain the pre-1861 Union, at all costs in fact. Slavery was THE wedge issue of the 1850's.

A politician can ride a single issue to political success as has been witnessed countless times in the last decade or two (abortion, guns, marriage).

Lincoln can be graded on the net "good" that came from his presidency but he must also be JUDGED for his mistakes. He horribly miscalculated the Confederate response to his actions after he was inaugurated. His military bumbles are well documented. And the only way he won the war was by handing off to Grant and Sherman who believed in "Total War" including burning cities, destroying crops and livestock and the acceptance to give 3 Union lives to kill 1 Confederate life.

The WORST year in Iraq was 2007 when 904 American soldiers lost their lives.

At that rate it'd take 663 YEARS of 2007 Iraq to equal 4 years of US Civil War.

[Hannah Bell]

19. you start on his attitude toward slavery, now you've expanded to the entire civil war.

wtf?

[GSLevel9]

21. to understand Lincoln and his motives you have to look at everything. nt

[Hannah Bell]

25. says the cherry-picking quotster. bye.

[cliffordu]

27. Excellent response, Hannah Bell.

Good work.

[provis99]

18. I take it you are a Neo-Confederate Virginian?

Relative of Virginian John Wilkes Booth, perhaps?

[GSLevel9]

20. that's unfair.

I grew up with a balanced regimen of Civil War education. I've heard History as taught by carpetbagging Yankees and by Southern scholars. Neither is 100% accurate I've learned over the years. To me... "Must retain the Union" sounds a lot like "God told me to invade Iraq and free the Iraqi people".

Let's be realistic... if Lincoln had NOT supported the anti-slavery Northern Republicans he wouldn't have had the support to continue his war.

Lincoln "used" slavery as mechanism to his ascent to power and his leverage to prosecute his war.

It's a long and separate subject but many believe the Civil War didn't need to be fought AT ALL.

[provis99]

22. "Civil War"? Don't you people call it the "War of Northern Aggression"?

[GSLevel9]

23. lol...

yes I've heard it referred to as that... a THOUSAND times!!

[K8-EEE]

28. It shows!

Do you think the country would have been better off if the South won? I sure don't! As archaic as his views seem now, they were "liberal" compared to the Confederate mindset.

[GSLevel9]

30. of course not...

there NEVER SHOULD have been a Civil War.

[roguevalley]

26. wow, are you wrong.

[Joe Fields]

29. totally unfair to judge him by todays standards.

You seem to willfully neglect the times he was living in.

[Hannah Bell]

4. Lincoln expressed a variety of views over his career, and to different audiences.

not sure why his remarks to an audience of free blacks take precedence over his private writings or anything else.

[GSLevel9]

5. so he was an opportunistic phoney? That's a fair characterization. nt

[Hannah Bell]

9. not really interested in debating with you. i don't think he was anymore

an opportunistic phoney than any other politician.

[Dappleganger]

14. I see him as a person who tried to be all things to all people...

sort of like President Obama, depending upon who he was trying to impress.

[iamtechus]

10. "expressed a variety of views over his career, and to different audiences"

Sorta like Obama?

[Leopolds Ghost]

11. Yes, to be fair Lincoln became a personal friend of Douglass, who influenced his views.

Consider the words of the Second Inaugural Address, including the rhetoric about the Civil War punishing Old Testament- style for the victims of the lash, and compare it to his statements in the Lincoln-Douglas (other Douglas) debates. Lincoln wanted reconciliation but he would surely have done more for the freed slaves than his successors had he lived.

[Hugabear]

12. Oh, this should be good...

Saving my seat for this one!

:popcorn:

[david13]

16. Lincoln was no fool, no bumbling idiot. No person is going to rise

to the level of POTUS by actually being a bumbling idiot, even tho' at least one has fully and actively portrayed one.
What was not here mentioned was a "Back to Africa" movement that began before the civil war, and at different times was supported by different people, different groups.
Some of whom were slaves, former slaves, or free blacks.
At various times politicians of any sort embraced that concept or rejected it.
It had many different names, and many people did go back and do that (back to Africa).
dc

[1monster]

17. This is news? The African country of Liberia was founded by freed slaves.

I've known about Lincoln's desire to have the freed slaves start their own countries elsewhere for so many years that I don't even remember where I first heard it. Probably in junior high school, if not before.

For the times he lived in, it was not such a radical idea. Blacks and whites did not mingle much in the north and in the south, blacks were always subjective to whites. This was not a situation that led one to believe in equality and integration.

I'd like to believe that things were tremendously different today; and, indeed, I do believe that we have progressed far, far from just the early seventies. But the attitudes that have been openly demonstrated since 2008, I fear we have not progressed as far as I had believed.

[thelordofhell]

24. I also read that he hunted Vampires

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X58RPS665V0

[Nye Bevan]

31. In 150 years from now, people are going to be looking back at Obama's opposition to gay marriage

with the same kind of bafflement and disgust.

[Shagbark Hickory]

32. He's starting to come around.

I have a funny feeling if he gets re-elected, he will mysteriously change his mind about it.

[Fire1]

33. Old news. Not the link but the content. n/t