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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: longnshort who wrote (128745)4/8/2004 9:22:23 PM
From: longnshort  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 281500
 
"Now I say to you, my fellow citizen, that in my opinion, the signers of the Declaration of Independence had no reference to the Negro whatever. One great evidence is to be found in the fact that at the time every one of the thirteen colonies was a slaveholding colony, every signer of the Declaration representing a slaveholding constituency, and not one of them emancipated his slaves, much less offered citizenship to them when they signed the Declaration. If they intended to declare the Negro was equal of the white man, they were bound that day and hour to have put the Negroes on an equality with themselves." - Abraham Lincoln, during the October 16, 1858 debate in Peoria, IL with Douglas. "I can conceive of no greater calamity than the assimilation of the Negro into our social and political life as our equal. . . We can never attain the ideal union our fathers dreamed, with millions of an alien, inferior race among us, whose assimilation is neither possible nor desirable." - Abraham Lincoln, after signing the Emancipation Proclamation (like other presidents, Lincoln sought to repatriation of freed Blacks to Africa).



To: longnshort who wrote (128745)4/8/2004 10:50:18 PM
From: ManyMoose  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 281500
 
So? Lincoln is still up there on Mt. Rushmore, along with three other near-equally great presidents. He made this country what it is today because of his achievements.

Besides, you are judging him in the context of OUR time, not his own.

Who would you suggest as a model for Nelson Mandela's successor? (re: the originating post of this thread.) Forget M.L. King. He wasn't a politician. Forget Jesse Jackson. He -- well he just don't cut the mustard. Forget Bill Clinton. Just forget him. Ronald Reagan? Wrong country. Ghandi? He left South Africa and didn't come back.

Message #128745 from longnshort at Apr 8, 2004 9:21 PM

"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. . . I give. . . the most solemn pledge that I will to the very last, stand by the law of the State, which forbids the marrying of white people with negroes." - Abraham Lincoln (Fourth Debate with Stephen Douglas at Charleston, Illinois on September 18, 1858, Vol. III, p. 145-146 of The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln).