Quote:
Originally Posted by Azure
IFF, I don't necessarily disagree. His position on slavery, while often debated was made quite clear by his actions.
There was an article on CNN a while back showcasing the relationship he had with a black slave. It went through some history, and mentioned the quotes I'm posted above. Lincoln didn't have a lot of support from the black community because of that. In fact he had to win them over, which of course he did.
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Was it Fredrick Douglass? He was a
former slave, mind you--who escaped and then went on the abolitionist speaking circuit and became a minor celebrity in the free states.
I don't think we disagree all that much in the end. What I often explained to students (when I was teaching this stuff) was that racism was a standard, accepted worldview at that time--and abolitionists were just racists who thought slavery was wrong. Many of them wanted to free the slaves and then forcibly relocate them to Africa--keep in mind, those slave families had been American for many generations!
What I was taking issue with was the idea (which I've heard espoused by some) that Lincoln didn't care about slavery itself, when clearly it was his
raison d'etre as a politician. That doesn't mean he didn't harbour racist attitudes (though some of that, I feel, is typical political "ideological triangulation"--Lincoln needed to create a broad coalition of voters in order to win office, not just hardcore abolitionists such as you would have found in Massachusetts or among the Quakers in Pennsylvania.
I'd say that Lincoln's greatest strength and his greatest flaw were the same: he had a monomaniacal dedication to two ideas: the abolition of slavery
and the preservation of the union. Those two ideas, unfortunately, created a contradiction that could only be resolved through a bloody and costly civil war.