Negro equality. Fudge! How long in the Government of a God great enough to make and maintain this
Universe, shall there continue knaves to vend and fools to gulp, so low a piece of demagoguism as this?
(The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy P. Basler, Rutgers University Press, 1953, September
1859 (Vol. III p. 399))
In an address at Springfield, Illinois, on June 26, 1857:
A separation of the races is the only perfect preventive of amalgamation, but as immediate separation is
impossible the next best thing is to keep them apart where they are not already together... Such separation,
if ever affected at all, must be effected by colonization... The enterprise is a difficult one, but 'where there
is a will there is a way;' and what colonization needs now is a hearty will. Will springs from the 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. (Vol. II, pp. 408-9)
In the famous Lincoln-Douglas Debates in Charleston, Illinois, Lincoln said:
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. I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor
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 ever forbid the two
races living together on terms of social and political equality. (Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at
Charleston, Illinois on September 18, 1858 (Vol. III pp. 145-461))
The following are President Lincoln's words at a repatriation ceremony in Washington, D.C.
I have urged the colonization of the negroes, and I shall continue. My Emancipation Proclamation was
linked with this plan. There is no room for two distinct races of white men in America, much less for two
distinct races of whites and blacks.
I can conceive of no greater calamity than the assimilation of the negro into our social and political life as
our equal...
Within twenty years we can peacefully colonize the negro and give him our language, literature, religion, and system of government under conditions in which he can rise to the full measure of manhood. This he
can never do here. 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. (Vol. V, pp. 371-5)[16]
See our present condition -- The country engaged in war! -- our white men cutting one another's throats . .
. and then consider what we know to be the truth.
But for your race among us there could not be war, although many men engaged on either side do not care
for you one way or the other… It is better for us both therefore to be separated. . .
You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any
other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great
disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffer very greatly, many of them by living among us, while
ours suffer from your presence. In a word we suffer on each side. If this be admitted, it affords a reason at
least why we should be separated. (address on Colonization to a Deputation of Negroes in Washington, DC on
August 14, 1862 (Vol. V p. 371)
Negro equality. Fudge! How long in the Government of a God great enough to make and maintain this
Universe, shall there continue knaves to vend and fools to gulp, so low a piece of demagoguism as this?
(The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy P. Basler, Rutgers University Press, 1953, September
1859 (Vol. III p. 399))
In an address at Springfield, Illinois, on June 26, 1857:
A separation of the races is the only perfect preventive of amalgamation, but as immediate separation is
impossible the next best thing is to keep them apart where they are not already together... Such separation,
if ever affected at all, must be effected by colonization... The enterprise is a difficult one, but 'where there
is a will there is a way;' and what colonization needs now is a hearty will. Will springs from the 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. (Vol. II, pp. 408-9)
In the famous Lincoln-Douglas Debates in Charleston, Illinois, Lincoln said:
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. I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor
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 ever forbid the two
races living together on terms of social and political equality. (Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at
Charleston, Illinois on September 18, 1858 (Vol. III pp. 145-461))
The following are President Lincoln's words at a repatriation ceremony in Washington, D.C.
I have urged the colonization of the negroes, and I shall continue. My Emancipation Proclamation was
linked with this plan. There is no room for two distinct races of white men in America, much less for two
distinct races of whites and blacks.
I can conceive of no greater calamity than the assimilation of the negro into our social and political life as
our equal...
Within twenty years we can peacefully colonize the negro and give him our language, literature, religion, and system of government under conditions in which he can rise to the full measure of manhood. This he
can never do here. 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. (Vol. V, pp. 371-5)[16]
See our present condition -- The country engaged in war! -- our white men cutting one another's throats . .
. and then consider what we know to be the truth.
But for your race among us there could not be war, although many men engaged on either side do not care
for you one way or the other… It is better for us both therefore to be separated. . .
You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any
other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great
disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffer very greatly, many of them by living among us, while
ours suffer from your presence. In a word we suffer on each side. If this be admitted, it affords a reason at
least why we should be separated. (address on Colonization to a Deputation of Negroes in Washington, DC on
August 14, 1862 (Vol. V p. 371)
(post is archived)