“You and we are different races,” he astutely observed. “We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races.… This physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both” and “affords a reason at least why we should be separated.… It is better for us both, therefore, to be separate.” 1
This incident was not a onetime flight of fancy for [him]. In his July 6, 1852, eulogy to Henry Clay, delivered in Springfield, Illinois, [he] approvingly quoted Clay’s statement that “there is a moral fitness in the idea of returning to Africa her children,” which would supposedly be “a signal blessing to that most unfortunate region.” He first proposed deporting American blacks to Liberia in an 1854 speech in Peoria, Illinois. On June 26, 1857, as an aside while commenting on the Dred Scott decision, [he] offered another reason why he favored colonization: “There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all white people, to the idea of an indiscriminate amalgamation of the white and black races.…”2 He voiced such opinions throughout his entire adult life. Such views were consistent with the views of the vast majority of white people in the North.
[He] instructed [the Secretary of State] to begin the procedure to enact a constitutional amendment that would say, “the Constitution should never be altered so as to authorize Congress to abolish or interfere with slavery in the states.” 3
“I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.” 4
1. Abraham Lincoln, “Address on Colonization to a Committee of Colored Men,” August 14, 1862, in Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings, Vol. 2, 1859–1865 (New York: Library of America, 1989), p. 353.
2. Abraham Lincoln, “Comment on the Dred Scott Decision,” June 26, 1857, online at
http://www.founding.com/library/body.cfm?id=321&parent=63.
3: Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005) p. 296. [Lincoln to Seward]
4. Abraham Lincoln, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861.
So when's the Lincoln Memorial coming down?