Lincoln on the Negro Race

Lincoln on the Negro Race

Thomas Allen

Below are some quotations where Abraham Lincoln expressed his opinion of the Negro, Black, race. If the reader is a worshiper of Father Abraham, the Great Emancipator, he may not want to go any further because his sensibility may be offended.
In the fourth debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois, on September 18, 1858, Lincoln said:

Judge Douglas has said to you that he has not been able to get from me an answer to the question whether I am in favor of negro citizenship. So far as I know, the Judge never asked me the question before. 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.

From the same speech, Lincoln said:

While I was at the hotel to-day an elderly gentleman called upon me to know whether I was really in favor of producing a perfect equality between the negroes and white people. While I had not proposed to myself on this occasion to say much on that subject, yet as the question was asked me I thought I would occupy perhaps five minutes in saying something in regard to it. 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 for ever 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.

Also, in this debate, Lincoln said, “I give him (Douglas) the most solemn pledge that I will to the very last stand by the law of this State, which forbids the marrying of white people with negroes.”
As can be seen from the above, Lincoln opposed giving the Negro citizenship and the right to vote and hold public office. Moreover, he objected to making the Negro the White man’s equal and opposed interracial marriages.
In the fifth debate with Douglas at Galesburg, Illinois, on October 7, 1858, Lincoln said:

I have all the while maintained, that in so far as it should be insisted that there was an equality between the White and black races that should produce a perfect social and political equality, it is an impossibility.

Further in the same speech reiterating his position on Negro equality that he had made in the fourth debate, Lincoln said, “In which extract I expressly declared that my own feelings would not admit a social and political equality between the white and black races.”
Later in the same speech, Lincoln declared:

Now gentlemen, I don’t want to read at any great length, but this is the true complexion of all I have ever said in regard to the institution of slavery or the black race, and this is the whole of it; and anything that argues me into his (Douglas’s) idea of perfect social and political equality with the negroes is but a specious and fantastical arrangement of words by which a man can prove a horse-chestnut to be a chestnut horse.

Further on in the same speech, Lincoln said:

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 probably forever forbid their living together on the footing of perfect equality, and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I as well as Judge Douglas am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position.

Later in the same speech, Lincoln remarks:

We have due regard to the actual presence of it (slavery) amongst us and the difficulties of getting rid of it in any satisfactory way, and all the constitutional obligations thrown about it.

During the fifth debate, Lincoln states again his belief in the inequality of the races. Blacks are inferior to Whites.
In the seventh and last debate with Douglas at Alton, Illinois, on October 15, 1858, Lincoln said:

I never have complained especially of the Dred Scott decision because it held that the negro could not be a citizen, and the Judge (Douglas) is always wrong when he says I ever did so complain of it. I have the speech here, and I will thank him or any of his friends to show where I said that a negro should be a citizen, and complained especially of the Dred Scott decision because it declared he could not be one. I have done no such thing, and Judge Douglas’ persistently insisting that I have done so, has strongly impressed me with the belief of a pre-determination on his part to misrepresent me. He could not get his foundation for insisting that I was in favor of this negro equality anywhere else as well as he could by assuming that untrue proposition.

In the same speech, Lincoln said. “I wish every slave in the United States was in the country of his ancestors.”
Later in the same speech, Lincoln stated:

What I insist upon is, that the new Territories shall be kept free from it (slavery) while in the Territorial condition. Judge Douglas assumes that we have no interest in them — that we have no right whatever to interfere. I think we have some interest. I think as white men we have. Do we not wish for an outlet for our surplus population, if I may so express myself?

Further, in that debate, Lincoln commented:

Now irrespective of the moral aspect of this question as to whether there is a right or wrong in enslaving a negro, I am still in favor of our new Territories being in such a condition that white men may find a home — may find some spot where they can better their condition — where they can settle upon new soil and better their condition in life. I am in favor of this not merely, (I must say it here as I have elsewhere,) for our own people who are born amongst us, but as an outlet for free white people everywhere, the world over in which Hans and Baptiste and Patrick, and all other men from all the world, may find new homes and better their condition in life.

In the same debate, Lincoln said:

So, too, when he [Douglass] assumes that I am in favor of introducing a perfect social and political equality between the white and black races. These are false issues, upon which Judge Douglas has tried to force the controversy. There is no foundation in truth for the charge that I maintain either of these propositions.

As this debate shows, Lincoln agreed with the Dred Scott decision that Negroes were not citizens. He restated his opposition to Negro equality with Whites. Moreover, he expressed his desire to repatriate Blacks back to Africa. Also, he wanted to keep Blacks out of the territories and make the territories homelands for Whites only.
In a private letter written October 18, 1858, Lincoln writes:

But it does not follow that social and political equality between whites and blacks, must be incorporated, because slavery must not. The declaration (of Independence) does not so require.

      Thus, Lincoln states that freeing the slaves did not mean or require that Blacks be made equal to Whites. The equality phrase in the Declaration of Independence did not require such equality.
In a speech at Carlinville, Illinois on August 31, 1858, the newspaper reported Lincoln as saying:

He (Lincoln) said the question is often asked, why this fuss about niggers? . . . Sustain these men and negro equality will be abundant, as every white laborer will have occasion to regret when he is elbowed from his plow or his anvil by slave niggers.

Not only did Lincoln use the forbidden “N” word, he also expressed his opposition to making the Negro the White man’s equal.
In a private letter written January 29, 1859, Lincoln commented on a speech of one of his supporters who objected to the Oregon constitution because it excluded free Negroes: “His objection to the Oregon Constitution because it excludes free negroes, is the only thing I wish he had omitted.” Thus, Lincoln favored Oregon’s exclusion of free Negroes.
In a speech at Dayton, Ohio, on September 17, 1859 Lincoln said, as reported in the newspaper:

The free white men had a right to claim that the new territories into which they and their children might go to seek a livelihood should be preserved free and clear from the incumbrance of slavery, and that no laboring white man should be placed in a position where, by the introduction of slavery into the territories, he would be compelled to toil by the side of a slave. . . .
If there was a necessary conflict between the white man and the negro, I should be for the white man as much as Judge Douglas. . . .
That you made it a Free State, not with the embarrassment upon you of already having among you many slaves, which if they had been here, and you had sought to make a Free State, you would not know what to do with. If they had been among you, embarrassing difficulties, most probably, would have induced you to tolerate a slave constitution instead of a free one, as indeed these very difficulties have constrained every people on this continent who have adopted slavery. . . .
The people of these United States are the rightful masters of both congresses and courts not to overthrow the constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert that constitution. . . .

In this speech, Lincoln declares that the territories belong to Whites free from slavery, which meant free from Blacks. Moreover, slavery may be the best means of control Blacks in a White society.

In a speech at Leavenworth, Kansas, December 3, 1859, Lincoln declares:

You would not know what to do with the slaves after you have made them free. You would not wish to keep them as underlings; nor yet to elevate them to social and political equality. You could not send them away. The slave States would not let you send them there and the free States would not let you send them there.

In this speech, Lincoln comments on the problem of freeing the slaves. No one really wanted the freed Negroes. The jest of his comments were that to oppose slavery did not mean that one was a negrophile and wanted make him the White man’s equal.
In a speech at the Cooper Institute, New York City, on February 27, 1860, Lincoln quoted:

In the language of Mr. Jefferson, uttered many years ago, “It is still in our power to direct the process of emancipation, and deportation, peaceably, and in such slow degrees, as that the evil will wear off insensibly; and in their place be, pari passu, filled up by free white Laborers. If, on the contrary, it is left to force itself on, human nature must shudder at the prospect held up."

In a speech at Hartford, Connecticut on March 5, 1860, Lincoln said:

As the learned Judge of a certain Court is said to have decided – “When a ship is wrecked at sea, and two men seize upon one plank which is capable of sustaining but one of them, either of them can rightfully push the other off."

Thus, Whites could morally deport Blacks so that the White race would survive.
In a speech at New Haven, Connecticut on March 6, 1860, Lincoln remarked:

We think that respect for ourselves, a regard for future generations and for the God that made us, require that we put down this wrong where our votes will properly reach it. We think that species of labor an injury to free white men.

Black labor injures White labor.
In a letter to the Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, on March 16, 1861, Lincoln explained that he had discharged a servant because of a race: “The difference of color between him [a Negro] and the other servants is the cause of our separation.”
In an official letter to the Secretary of the Interior, Caleb Smith, on October 23, 1861, Lincoln wrote:

It is therefore referred to you with authority to act, and you are hereby authorized to carry the contract into effect, should the result of your examination be satisfactory and establish that it will prove of sufficient value to the government. The War, Navy, Post Office and Interior Departments may all derive benefits from this proposed contract. The latter under the law of 3d March 1819 requires heavy appropriations for the transport and support of captured Africans. It is possible that a modification of that law may make it a measure of great economy to direct there negroes to some of the unoccupied lands of Central America, and the present contract, may if well considered and arranged, be the introduction to this, and an equally desirable measure to secure the removal of negroes from this country. I therefore recommend that all these points be considered and that the contract be so drawn as to secure such advantages as may in your judgement seem desirable for the United States to hold.

Thus, Lincoln as President of the United States expressed his desire to deport Blacks and directed members of his cabinet to pursue that goal.
In a speech in Springfield, Illinois June 26, 1857, Lincoln said, “I have said that the separation of the races is the only perfect preventive of amalgamation.” Continuing in the same speech, he said:

Such separation, if ever effected at all, must be effected by colonization; and no political party, as such, is now doing anything directly for colonization. Party operations at present only favor or retard colonization incidentally. The enterprise is a difficult one; but “When there is a will there is a way;” and what colonization needs most is a hearty will. Will springs from two elements of moral sense and self interest. Let us be brought to believe it is morally right, and at the same time, favorable to, or, at least, not against, our interest, to transfer the African to his native clime, and we shall find a way to do it, however great the task may be.

Again, Lincoln express his desire to deport the Blacks. Not only is such deportation necessary to protect White labor, it is also necessary to prevent amalgamation of the races.
In a speech at Peoria, Illinois, on October 16, 1854 Lincoln remarked, “In the course of his reply, Senator Douglas remarked, in substance, that he had always considered this government was made for white people and not for negroes. Why, in point of fact, I think so too.” Thus, the US Constitution and the government that it established was for Whites and not for Blacks.
In a speech at Chicago, Illinois July 10, 1858, Lincoln said:

I protest, now and forever, against that counterfeit logic which presumes that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave, I do necessarily want her for a wife. My understanding is that I need not have her for either, But as God made us separate, we can leave one another alone and do one another much good thereby. There are white men enough to marry all the white women, and enough black men to marry all the black women and in God's name let them be so married.

God made the races separate; therefore, they should leave each other alone and not intermarry.
In a speech at Springfield, Illinois, on July 17, 1858, Lincoln remarked, “What I would most desire would be the separation of the white and black races.”
In his Annual Message to Congress on December 3, 1861,  President Lincoln said:

To carry out the plan of colonization may involve the acquiring of territory, and also the appropriation of money beyond that to be expended in the territorial acquisition. Having practiced the acquisition of territory for nearly sixty years, the question of constitutional power to do so is no longer an open one with us. The power was questioned at first by Mr. Jefferson, who, however, in the purchase of Louisiana, yielded his scruples on the plea of great expediency. If it be said that the only legitimate object of acquiring territory is to furnish homes for white men, this measure effects that object; for the emigration of colored men leaves additional room for white men remaining or coming here. . . .
On this whole proposition — including the appropriation of money with the acquisition of territory, does not expediency amount to absolute necessity — that, without which the government itself cannot be perpetuated?

In his Annual Message to Congress, Lincoln promoted his plan to deport Blacks and asked for appropriations to carry out the plan. Also, he expected the vacancies left by the deported Negroes would be filled by European, White, immigrants. Moreover, deportation of the Negro was necessary for the government to perpetuate itself.
In his Annual Message to Congress on December 1, 1862, President Lincoln said:

With deportation, even to a limited extent, enhanced wages to white labor is mathematically certain. Labor is like any other commodity in the market — increase the demand for it, and you increase the price of it. Reduce the supply of black labor, by colonizing the black laborer out of the country, and, by precisely so much, you increase the demand for, and wages of, white labor.

Lincoln promotes the deportation of Blacks as a means to raise the wages of White workers.
As the words of Lincoln show, not only did he not believe in racial equality, he did not believe that the Negro should be a citizen. Moreover, he strongly opposed miscegenation and wanted to deport all the Blacks. If Lincoln’s policies on racial issues had been carried out and maintained, the country would have no racial problems today: Monoracial countries have no racial problems. Lincoln was a terrible president, but he had more wisdom about race relations than most people today have and far more than any of his admirers today have.

Copyright © 2020 by Thomas Coley Allen.

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