In my last blog I put up some surprising quotes from famous people in American history that I figured not many had heard of. As a follow-up, I'd like to examine some of those quotes and point out a few things about them that the mainstream "historians" choose to ignore. And to get the ball rolling, let's start off with one of my least-favorite Presidents, Abraham Lincoln.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am NOT a fan of "The Great Emancipator." I don't think there has been a figure in American history who has been more improperly and incorrectly glorified than Abraham Lincoln. "Historians" portray him as some great liberator, some magnificent champion for liberty, freedom, and justice, when in actuality what he really was was a despot, a tyrant, a warmonger, and a racist.
Yes, that's right, Abraham Lincoln was a racist! And to prove that point, let's look at a couple of his quotes regarding the topic of the black man:
"I am NOT in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office...I am NOT in favor of Negro citizenship." Pretty much self-explanitory, I think.
"I will say, then, that I am not, nor have ever been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races...I am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race." Seems to me that Lincoln had pretty much the same opinion of the black man in the 1800's as did the majority of the white people in America. Oh, and that lowly opinion, by the way, was pretty much universal across the nation, not just in the South as our modern-day "historians" would have you believe.
"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." Really? So tell us, Abe, if you felt you had no LAWFUL right to interfere with slavery, then why did you issue the Emancipation Proclamation? And wouldn't that make your proclamation an illegal document, as I have said before?
"Amend the Constitution to say it should never be altered to interfere with slavery." This from a speech to Congress on Christmas Eve, 1860, right before the outbreak of the war. To be followed two years later by the illegal document I spoke of in the preceeding paragraph.
"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." This from a letter to Horace Greely, editor of the New York Tribune in August 1862, shortly before the issuance of the EP. I, along with a great many other students of true American history, have long held that the issuance of the EP was nothing more than a political ploy to get the people of the North behind his war effort, which by mid-1862 was going very badly. The Federal forces were getting their collective asses kicked at every turn, and the Northern press was calling for Lincoln to contact Jefferson Davis and start talking peace. Lincoln needed something to solidify his support, so he chose the one topic that he knew no one would disagree with - slavery. He really didn't give a damn whether the slaves were free or not, he just used them as a political tool to get what he wanted.
And lastly:
"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suites them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred right - a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can, may revolutionize, and make their own, of so much territory as they inhabit." So why, then, if Lincoln truly believed this, did he sent military forces to invade the South and "put down the insurrection?" In one breath he says that he believes that the people as a whole, or any part of the people, have the right to rise up, shake off the government that they don't like, and start a new one - and in the next breath he gives the order to invade the South that has seceded from the Union. Quite the hypocrite, Lincoln. Among other things, that is.
And that's all for today, kids. Class dismissed!
IHC
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