Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator who was also a colossal racist. He fought for their freedom, or maybe that was a political stunt. And he certainly didn’t think blacks should have the same rights as white people. Except maybe soldiers. Well actually … eh its a bit complicated. So let’s look at Lincoln and slavery.
As with most people, Lincoln’s views changed over time. His views on slavery and blacks in general were no exception. Unlike most people though, his view evolved in a very public fashion, and because of that we are left with a great deal of works that highlight his views as they progressed.
The problem with such a public evolution is that it becomes exceptionally easy to cherry pick through his statements, and portray him in whatever particular light one may want. With seeing things in black and white coming natural, Lincoln is often regulated to either the Great Emancipator, or a colossal racist, depending on the individual.
In recent years, the pendulum has begun swinging more to the negative side of the spectrum. Many historical figures, especially those with a mythical standing, have seen similar fates. The mythology that surrounds them has slowly been peeled back, and the person they were is being explored. At times though, this causes an over correction, where the person is rightly taken off of their pedestal, and then unjustly pounded into dust. When in reality, the person generally falls somewhere nearer to the center, with both their good qualities as well as their bad ones.
Viewing people in this manner, and painting a full picture is complicated. And Lincoln is nothing but complicated.
It’s Complicated
One thing that we can say about Lincoln is that his view on slavery being immoral was rather early. According to Lincoln, he couldn’t remember a time in which he didn’t think slavery was immoral. He grew up in a family that opposed slavery, a family that attended a Separate Baptists church, which was strictly opposed to slavery. Slavery would also have a factor in his family moving from Kentucky to present day Indiana, which was part of free territory.
As early as 1837, Lincoln made his first public declaration against slavery, as a 28 year old serving in the Illinois General Assembly. Throughout his career, he would continue to speak out against slavery. But then again its more complicated than that.
Lincoln was no abolitionist. He found slavery morally wrong, but there was also a problem, one that was quite large for Lincoln. Slavery was sanctioned by the Constitution. The question that Lincoln faced, as did many others, was, well what do you do about slavery then? In 1854, in his three hour speech in Peoria Illinois, he stated his conundrum. He was morally, legally, and economically opposed to slavery. But he admitted that in the current political system in which he existed, he didn’t know what to do.
That aspect of law was important to Lincoln, as can be seen in his legal career. As a practicing lawyer, and an Illinois legislator, he would be involved with a variety of cases involving slavery. Even though he was open about his moral opposition to slavery, he found himself on both sides of the issue with the clients that he represented. While he found it morally wrong for a human to own another human, it was still protected by the law, and it was his duty to abide by the law.
That’s not to say that Lincoln didn’t try to work within the system for a change. But then again, it gets complicated.
Lincoln argued that when the founding fathers penned the phrase, “all men are created equal,” that it applied to both blacks and whites alike. But that didn’t mean he thought that they should have the same political, or even social rights. In his fourth debate with Steven Douglas, at Charleston Illinois, in 1858, he made it very clear what his stance was on the matter. Douglas accused Lincoln of supporting “negro equality.” Lincoln’s response, well simply, was racist:
“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway 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 say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything. “
Because of those views, Lincoln, while finding slavery immoral, and wanting to abolish it, found the best means to rid the United States of slavery completely was to have the black population leave the United States and settle in either Africa or Central America. It was the policy of colonization. It was the view that his political heroes, Henry Clay and Thomas Jefferson, also favored. Even up to August of 1862, as he was editing the preliminary draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln would hold that view. In that month, he would bring together a delegation of freed slaves with the hopes that they would support a colonization play in Central America. He argued that because of their differences, and the hostile attitudes of whites towards blacks, it was better for both to be separated.
His argument didn’t go over very well and sparked anger among both black leaders and abolitionists, who argued that African-Americans were just as native to this country, and because of that, deserved the same rights as whites. Lincoln seemed to take the criticism to heart, and wouldn’t publicly mention colonization again. He completely removed a mention to it in an early draft of the Emancipation Proclamation.
However, colonization more dealt with what to do after slavery ended; it didn’t really focus on how to get rid of slavery. Lincoln believed, early on, that if slavery could be contained, it would burn out. He also thought about possibly repealing slavery gradually, and compensating slave owner for their losses.
To put it simply, Lincoln had no idea what to do about slavery. He campaigned actively against slavery in Kansas. Vehemently opposed the Kansas-Nebraska act, of 1854, an opposition that helped propel him on to a wider stage. He found slavery to be morally wrong. But how to get rid of it, and what to do with former slaves was not an easy question for Lincoln, and one that took him a long time to figure out.
Two Events
But we need to take a moment to step back and look at two events that really helped Lincoln’s evolution on the subject, and pushed him to work harder on the issue. The first was the Dred Scott case in 1857. The case made it clear that no black person, free or slave, could become a United States citizen, and thus could not petition a court for their freedom. But it went further. According to Chief Justice Roger Taney, and his allies on the court, the federal government did not have the authority to even prohibit slavery in the territories it ruled. More so, Taney also rejected the idea that free states could give freedom to the slaves who were within their borders.
With the huge conquest of Mexican territory in the Southwest, the country had grown considerably, and because of that, coupled with Taney’s new doctrine via Dred Scott case, there was fear that containing slavery would be impractical, and thus it would continue strong. Joining the Republican party, the central point that Lincoln believed the new party should organize around was the opposition to any expansion of slavery, and by doing so, choke off the institution, and hopefully alter the balance between slave and free states so that the Constitution could be amended, and slavery be abolished. It was a long game for Lincoln.
In 1858, Lincoln would take this view to the public, when he accepted the Republican nomination to run for the United States Senate, against Stephen Douglas. Even though at the time, the public did not vote for senate members (instead they were elected by the State legislature up until 1913), Lincoln and Douglas took their fight to the public with the now famous Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858.
Lincoln would cite the Dred Scott case by name, and it was that ruling he had in mind when he made one of his most famous speeches:
“A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall. But I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South.”
As pointed out before, Lincoln would say some racist things during those debates, after being accused of supporting “negro equality,” but he also made clear his view:
” I have never said anything to the contrary, but I hold that notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas he is not my equal in many respects — certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowment. But in the right to eat the bread, without leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man. “
Lincoln would loose the senate election, but the Dred Scott case would remain the center of both constitutional and historical debates. It would also push Lincoln further, and helped lead to his election, and the Civil War.
This brings us to the second major event that helped shaped Lincoln’s evolution; the Civil War. While the Civil War was never fought to abolish slavery, slavery was intimately tied to it. In their declarations of cessation, all of the states that left the Union made it clear that slavery was at the forefront of the reasons. Because of that, from the very beginning of the Civil War, the Union was forced to deal with the issue of slavery. As slaves fled the Confederate States, the question the federal government was faced with is what are we to do with these people? The solution was that the government was going to treat them as if they were free, because they weren’t going to send them back.
This also opened up the Army to the enlistment of black men, and for Lincoln, that move, that blacks were fighting to keep the country together, made him promote at least partial suffrage; that black men who served the country deserved the right to vote. But it was more than just the right to vote that changed with Lincoln.
With the Civil War, and slaves running towards Union lines, the question of slavery was on the national agenda and had to be dealt with. With black men joining the fight to help preserve the Union, as Lincoln saw it, it really was a stimulus for him to begin changing his racial attitudes, and to see America as more of an interracial society.
That was never Lincoln’s intention for the war though. His goal was imply to save the Union, and do so in the shortest way possible as provided by the Constitution. As he wrote to the New York Tribune editor, Horace Greeley, “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, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.”
In closing the letter though, he made a clear distinction: “I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free.”
It was his duty as president that he had to stick with, regardless of his own personal feelings. That duty, for Lincoln, dictated that he preserve the Union.
But this did set the road to emancipation and allowed for the abolition of slavery.
One of the first steps towards this was the Emancipation Proclamation. Largely, it was a military tool. It didn’t technically free any slaves, but did two other things. First, it undermined the Confederacy. The Emancipation Proclamation would only really go into effect when the south was defeated and rejoined the union. At that time, slaves in those states would be free. It gave hope to slaves living within the Confederate states that they could be free. Now, this didn’t extend to slaves in the border states that didn’t go to war, or even in areas of the Confederacy that were already under Union control.
The proclamation changed fundamentally the nature of the war, and turned it into a war for freedom. This had a secondary effect, where it prompted a greater exodus of slaves out of the south, and into the Union. And with that, Lincoln provided a new source of manpower. He allowed the liberated to then become the liberators.
Times Change
As the war ended, the question of slavery still loomed large though. It was partially abolished, but it still hung in somewhat of a limbo. Before the war, changing the Constitution in order to allow the abolishment seemed like an impossibility. There was no way a Constitutional Amendment would have passed pre-Civil War, and thus the end of slavery would have been a long drawn out process.
With the war though, the south took themselves out of the equation. At the end of the war though, Lincoln knew he had to act quick, and that in order to end slavery, he would have to follow the Emancipation Proclamation with a Constitutional Amendment.
Before the south was restored into the Union, the 13th Amendment was proposed. It was thought that its passage would be quick and easy through Congress. But the House threw a wrench into the mix. For Lincoln though, the issue was of tantamount importance. The country had the ability to abolish slavery, and he took it upon himself to ensure the passage of the 13th Amendment. He insisted it become part of the Republican platform for the upcoming Presidential election, and his efforts would finally be met with success. In January of 1865, the 13th Amendment was passed, and it would be followed up by the 14th and 15th.
Now clearly, Lincoln wasn’t an untarnished hero, a mythical figure. He was flawed and had some very racist views. But as we have seen, he was also a complicated figure who held complicated beliefs. He was wholly human. He, as most people, existed within a lot of gray area. And that is all without mentioning that he grew up in a very different time, with very different ideas. Which we have to factor in. But in the end, for all of the good and the bad, he struggled to do what was right. His views may not always have been morally sound in today’s opinion, nor were all of his actions. But it also doesn’t make him a monster, and it certainly doesn’t take away from the very important contributions he made.
