Lincoln a racist?

[Laurel]

Did anyone by any chance happen to catch the show on the history channel last night questioning whether Lincoln was a racist and whether he actually wrote his Gettysburg address? I regret to say that I don't remember the gentleman's name who assered the views. Some of his premise was that Lincoln used the "n" word in his writings, that he advocated sending slaves back to Libereia thereby making America for whites only, and that the emmancipation proclaimation didn't free a single slave only the 13th ammendment did that. There were only scholars on the program that provided rebuttal in Lincoln's behalf. I'm sure this was a rebroadcast of an earlier show but it voiced a view I had never heard before. I find the whole idea extremely hard to swallow. Any thoughts?

Betsy

[Chris]

There are plenty of reports that Robert Todd Lincoln was overtly racist against blacks. Given that, I wouldn't be surprised. Lincoln's passivity in Indian rights issues certainly points towards his being racist against Indians.

Getting back to the Old Lead region, I think that of all the presidents of the 19th century, Ulysses S Grant's Indian policy could have been the most just if certain issues had not gotten in the way.

[gorentz]

I've run into people who go around saying Lincoln was a racist. I guess if you define your terms properly, you can show that every last person who ever lived was a racist.

Just from memory, I don't recall hearing before whether Lincoln ever used the n word. I believe he did toy with the idea of sending the slaves to Liberia, as did some other people.

As for the Emancipation Proclamation not freeing a single slave, I suspect somebody is having Fun With Definitions.

There is an agenda somewhere behind this waiting to be smoked out, I'd guess. Are they saying Lincoln was a bad president, and our country would have been better off if somebody else had been elected in 1860? Are they saying Lincoln should not have did what he did while in office? Getting to questions like that gets us away from weasel-worded name-calling and into things that can actually be discussed and debated.

John Gorentz

[Chris]

gorentz, I agree with you on that. I think Lincoln's attitudes towards blacks were typical for the age he lived in: as such, I don't think he could have been described as racist against blacks. He was probably one of the best people available for the job.

What I hold against him is his inaction when Pro-Union Indians fled into Kansas at the beginning of the Civil War.

As for his volunteering in the BlackHawk war, he was just like a lot of other people-- I would rather give him the benefit of the doubt-- I assume he was acting on information available to him.