In the modern conscience, race and slavery are almost guaranteed to occupy the same ignominy in the remembrance of the Southern slave economy. American students in the South, myself included, were taught that Abraham Lincoln was the superhuman hero that was adamantly against slavery and advocated equality – an idol to be worshipped. The documents in this week’s reading packet, however, provide a much more nuanced description of his views on slavery. They show that while Lincoln eventually regarded emancipation as necessary, before the war he had no plans to alter Southern slaveholding traditions and expressed some flagrantly racist views.
Although he expressed the view that slavery is intrinsically wrong, he was opposed to racial equality. Because I am not one to smear “The Great Emancipator’s” name, I believe his views of racial equality stem from the prevailing popular opinion which had begun to marginalize abolitionists by the 1850s. To be sure, Lincoln provided ample evidence for his opposition to the institution of slavery. He writes in Peoria Illinois in 1854 that “I can not but hate [slavery]. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world”. Throughout the excerpts, Lincoln returns to the Declaration of Independence and bases his case against slavery on the clause that all men are created equal “in certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” (my italics) He writes in a debate in Ottawa, Ill. (Aug. 1858) “there is no reason in the world why the Negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence”. In this way, he is not portrayed as an abolitionist but as a governmental purist. Although he states that slaves are allowed the right of liberty, he shies away from abolition until late 1862. Before the war, he reiterates the Republican plank in Alton, IL by saying that the only way to combat slavery is to prevent its spread not to attack the institution where it is already established. (Doc 3) He even reiterates this on the eve of secession to Alexander Stephens (Georgia Senator) by saying that he has no plans on abolishing slavery.
For today’s standards, Mr. Lincoln appears staunchly conservative in his debates with Stephen Douglas with regards to race equality. While he acknowledges the slaves’ right to freedom in the territories, he does not call for basic civil rights even in free states such as Illinois. His response to the Dred Scott decision in 1857 includes this strict reading of the Declaration of Independence: “but [the Founding Fathers] did not intend to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not mean to say all were equal in color, size, intellect, moral developments, or social capacity.” He also claims in his debates that there are fundamental physiological differences between the races that will prevent them from “living together on terms of social and political equality”. (Charleston, IL, 1858) This logic then leads him to a very conservative (and shocking) claim in a Charleston, Ill. debate (1858), where he writes that “I tell [Stephen Douglas] very frankly that I am not in favor of Negro citizenship.”
I discounted these senatorial debate sentiments at first as pandering to a predominantly white pioneer crowd. However, Lincoln’s actions during the war as President support a disregard for ex-slaves equality with whites. Just before the drafting of the emancipation proclamation, he had written that “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it.” (letter to Horace Greely, Aug 22 1862). Lincoln was a pragmatist during the war, and emancipation would only happen if it aided the war effort. In particular he defends the Emancipation Proclamation as a necessity for the survival of the Union, not a result of personal abolitionist tendencies. He writes to a Kentuckian friend, Albert Hodges, (April 4 1864), saying that “I have done no official act in mere deference to my abstract judgment and feeling on slavery”. Rather it was in the interest of the Union armies to gain 130,000 troops and laborers by the act.
To Lincoln, freedom and race equality were two very different non-linked outcomes. Lincoln was personally opposed to slavery because it made America’s founding documents hypocritical. For a nation based upon equality of all men to pursue life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, slavery was an affront to the conscience. Despite this appeal to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, during the war he justifies emancipation as a necessity of war. Furthermore, Lincoln was decidedly not in favor of black-white equality. The interplay between freedom and equality is perfectly summed up in Lincoln’s response to the Dred Scott decision. He writes that “[Judge Douglas concludes that] because I do not want a black woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. I need not have her for either, I can just leave her alone.” While he would not see them enslaved, they could exist as a separate and free class of second-hand citizens. This leads me to ask: Was Lincoln the first to advocate Jim Crow laws?