Lincoln held racist views toward Blacks and he believed freed slaves should be colonized in foreign nations

Michael T. Griffith 2006 "The historian David M. Potter drew a nice distinction in Lincoln's position between 'what he would do for the slave' and 'what he would do for the Negro.' 'All men are created equal,' he would say, on the authority of the Declaration of Independence, only to add: '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.' He opposed allowing blacks to vote, to sit on juries, to marry whites, even to be citizens." (Garraty and McCaughey, The American Nation, p. 413) "Lincoln spelled out his position with clarity: '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, (applause)--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 races which I believe will for ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.'" (McPherson, The Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 186) "Following a meeting at the Executive Mansion with Negroes from Louisiana who presented him with a petition, Lincoln privately expressed his support for voting rights for Negroes. He preferred to restrict it, however, to 'the very intelligent' and Union army veterans." (Klingaman, Abraham Lincoln and the Road to Emancipation, p. 273) ". . . Lincoln proposed that slaveholders in the border states [i.e., the Union states of Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland] transfer control over their slaves to the federal government in lieu of [instead of] taxes. The government would then colonize the Negroes 'at some place, or places, in a climate congenial to them.' 'It might be well to consider, too,' Lincoln added, 'whether the free colored people already in the United States could not, so far as individuals may desire, be included in such colonization.' Perhaps they could be dispatched to the recently independent republics of Haiti and Liberia, with whom Lincoln intended to open diplomatic relations. 'The emigration of colored men,' Lincoln reminded the assembled congressmen, 'leaves additional room for white men remaining or coming here.' "Lincoln was no sudden convert to colonization. Montgomery Blair, the postmaster general, had been encouraging Lincoln's interest because the Blair family had long sought to expel the nation's entire black population to Central or South America." (Klingaman, Abraham Lincoln and the Road to Emancipation, p. 85) "Lincoln dismissed the possibility that his proclamation [the Emancipation Proclamation] would provoke slave insurrections, but he still expected Negroes to recognize that their interests would

be better served by leaving the United States. At a meeting the day after the proclamation was published, the president again asked his Cabinet to consider the best way to promote the colonization of free blacks. According to Representative George Julian, Lincoln 'wished it distinctly understood that the deportation of the slaves was, in his mind, inseparably connected' with emancipation." (Klingaman, Abraham Lincoln and the Road to Emancipation, p. 202)