Lincoln - in his own words
Links
- Abraham Lincoln Institute
- Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress
- Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Michael Burlingame)
- Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln
- Gilder Lehrman's Abraham Lincoln Page
- House Divided at Dickinson College
- Making of America
- Papers of Abraham Lincoln
- The Lincoln Log
- Top 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents
- 1852 - Eulogy on Henry Clay
- "...He did not perceive, that on a question of human right, the negroes were to be excepted from the human race. And yet Mr. Clay was the owner of slaves. Cast into life where slavery was already widely spread and deeply seated, he did not perceive, as I think no wise man has perceived, how it could be at once eradicated, without producing a greater evil, even to the cause of human liberty itself. His feeling and his judgment, therefore, ever led him to oppose both extremes of opinion on the subject..."housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/lincoln/eulogy-on-henry-clay-july-6-1852/
- 1858 - First Debate with Stephen Douglas
- "They are just what we would be in their situation. If slavery did not now exist among them, they would not introduce it. If it did now exist amongst us, we should not instantly give it up. This I believe of the masses North and South."hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/40410
- 1861 - Annual Message to Congress
- "that such persons, on such acceptance by the general government, be at once deemed free; and that, in any event, steps be taken for colonizing both classes, (or the one first mentioned, if the other shall not be brought into existence,) at some place, or places, in a climate congenial to them. It might be well to consider, too,---whether the free colored people already in the United States could not, so far as individuals may desire, be included in such colonization → . [24]
- 1862 - Remarks on Colonization
- "...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 is admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated..." hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/40448
- 1862 - Letter to Horace Greely
- "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. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union." housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/lincoln/letter-to-horace-greeley-august-22-1862/
Douglass - in his own words
- 1845 - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
- "I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ; I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land..... Never was there a clearer case of "stealing the livery of the court of heaven to serve the devil in."
- 1847 - Letter to Henry Clay - North Star
- "These are noble sentiments and would seem to flow from a heart overborne with a sense of the flagrant injustice and enormous cruelty of slavery, and of one earnestly and anxiously longing for a remedy. Standing alone, it would imply that the author had long been in search of some means to redress the wrongs of the “unfortunate victims” of whom he speaks…. That his righteous soul was, every hour, deeply grieved on account of the foul blot inflicted by the curse on his country’s character.
- But what are the facts? You yourself, at this moment, a slaveholder….."www.loc.gov/item/mfd.21008/
- 1848 - To Our Oppressed Countrymen - North Star
- "We solemnly dedicate the “NORTH STAR” to your cause, our long oppressed and plundered countrymen……Giving no quarter to slavery at the South, it will hold no truce with oppressors at the North. While it shall boldly advocate emancipation for our enslaved brethren, it will omit no opportunity to gain, for the nominally free, complete enfranchisement."www.loc.gov/item/mfd.21011/
- 1849 - Colonizationist Measures
- "I want to feel that this is no effervescent thing – that the feeling got up against Colonization, and in behalf of freedom is not to disappear and die out the next week, but that the fire kindled here is to continue to burn until slave prejudice, and last, though not least, Colonization, with all its deceptive acts, shall be utterly consumed. Friends, let us unite in a league against the oppressor…."www.iupui.edu/~douglass/
- 1852 - 4th of July Oration (Rochester, NY)
- "Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the Constitution and the Bible which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery-the great sin and shame of America!" www.freemaninstitute.com/douglass.htm
- 1862 - "What Shall be Done with the Slaves if Emancipated?" - Douglass Monthly
- "What shall be done with the Negro if emancipated? Deal justly with him. He is a human being, capable of judging between good and evil, right and wrong, liberty and slavery, and is as much a subject of law as any other man; therefore, deal justly with him. He is, like other men, sensible of the motives of reward and punishment. Give him wages for his work, and let hunger pinch him if he don’t work. He knows the difference between fullness and famine, plenty and scarcity."teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/what-shall-be-done-with-the-slaves-if-emancipated/
- 1863 - Mission of the War - Concert Hall, Philadelphia
- "Why is the war fiercely denounced as an abolition war? I answer, because the nation has long and bitterly hated abolition, and the enemies of the war confidently rely upon this hatred, to serve the ends of treason. Why do the loyal people deny the charge? I answer because they know that abolition, though now a vast power, is still odious. But the charge and the denial tell how the people despise the only measure that can save the country. "
- "...Our danger lies in the absence of all moral feeling in the utterances of our rulers. In his letter to Mr. Greely, [sic] the President has told the country that, if he could save the Union with slavery he would do that; if he could save it without the abolition of slavery, he would do that. In his last message he shows the same indifference as to slavery, by saying that he hoped that the rebellion could be put down without the abolition of slavery..."
- "....Mr. Lincoln wanted the Union, and would accept that, with or without slavery. Had a warm heart and high moral feeling controlled his utterance, he would have welcomed with joy unspeakable and full of glory, the opportunity afforded by the rebellion to free his country from the matchless crime and infamy of slavery. But policy, policy, everlasting policy has robbed our statesmanship of broad soul mov- ing utterance...."
- "....While the major part of all anti-slavery profession is based upon devotion to the Union rather than opposition to slavery, the country is in danger of a slave holding peace.... "cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415537070/data/section3/douglass-mission.pdf
- 1872 - Self Made Men
- "I have said “Give the negro fair play and let him alone.” I meant all that I said and a good deal more than some understand by fair play. It is not fair play to start the negro out in life, from nothing and with nothing, while others start with the advantage of a thousand years behind them. He should be measured, not by the heights others have obtained, but from the depths from which he has come. For any adjustment of the seals of comparison, fair play demands that to the barbarism from which the negro started shall be added two hundred years heavy with human bondage."www.frederick-douglass-heritage.org/self-made-men/
- 1876 - Freedman's Monument Address
- "Abraham Lincoln was not, in the fullest sense of the word, either our man or our model. In his interests, in his associations, in his habits of thought, and in his prejudices, he was a white man. He was preeminently the white man’s President, entirely devoted to the welfare of white men."www.iupui.edu/~douglass/