Monday, January 07, 2008
SOME LITTLE-KNOWN QUOTES FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN
'Honest Abe' was not racially enlightened, as many people think. The truth is both ugly and unpleasant: Not only was the ghastly, bloody war that he supposedly fought to end slavery unnecessary, Lincoln was a tyrant and an abuser of civil liberties. The "tyrant" part is well-documented. He suspended habeas corpus. He deported a US Congressman who disagreed with the war. He had Federal police impound dissenting newspapers and smash their presses. He authorized Sherman's March to the Sea -a war crime, by any civilized human standard.
It can only be concluded, based upon his own words, that Abraham Lincoln may well have been a slave abolitionist, but he was also clearly a racist who considered African-Americans to be inferior human beings-if indeed he considered them human beings at all....
Most ludicrous and disturbing of all, Lincoln was well-documented as a proponent of a separatist movement dubbed "colonization"-- and in the White House, Lincoln proposed to create colonies to send black people back to Africa in Liberia, to Haiti, or to work in coal mines in Panama....
More here
The above excerpts are from a libertarian site. Most libertarians do abhor Lincoln for his authoritarianism and vast expansion of central government power. I myself have a similar view -- as I set out here. To me "Lincoln the liberator" is perhaps the greatest myth of the 19th century -- not unlike the "Hitler was a Rightist" myth of the 20th century. Politicians do find myths very handy at times.
'Honest Abe' was not racially enlightened, as many people think. The truth is both ugly and unpleasant: Not only was the ghastly, bloody war that he supposedly fought to end slavery unnecessary, Lincoln was a tyrant and an abuser of civil liberties. The "tyrant" part is well-documented. He suspended habeas corpus. He deported a US Congressman who disagreed with the war. He had Federal police impound dissenting newspapers and smash their presses. He authorized Sherman's March to the Sea -a war crime, by any civilized human standard.
"My paramount objective in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery." -- Abraham Lincoln, August 22, 1862, letter to newspaper editor Horace Greeley
"We have decided that the negro must not be a slave within our limits, but we have also decided that the negro shall not be a citizen within our limits; that he shall not vote, hold office, or exercise any political rights." -- Abraham Lincoln, September 15, 1858 [Source: www.nps.gov]
"I will to the very last stand by the law of this State, which forbids the marrying of white people with negroes." -- Abraham Lincoln, September 18, 1858 [Source: www.nps.gov]
"I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race." -- Abraham Lincoln, September 18, 1858 [Source: www.nps.gov]
It can only be concluded, based upon his own words, that Abraham Lincoln may well have been a slave abolitionist, but he was also clearly a racist who considered African-Americans to be inferior human beings-if indeed he considered them human beings at all....
Most ludicrous and disturbing of all, Lincoln was well-documented as a proponent of a separatist movement dubbed "colonization"-- and in the White House, Lincoln proposed to create colonies to send black people back to Africa in Liberia, to Haiti, or to work in coal mines in Panama....
More here
The above excerpts are from a libertarian site. Most libertarians do abhor Lincoln for his authoritarianism and vast expansion of central government power. I myself have a similar view -- as I set out here. To me "Lincoln the liberator" is perhaps the greatest myth of the 19th century -- not unlike the "Hitler was a Rightist" myth of the 20th century. Politicians do find myths very handy at times.
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