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Abraham Lincoln would be denounced as a racist if he was alive today. Weird given that Obama has tried to make much of the fact that he (Obama) was elected from the land of Lincoln, anounced his candidancy for the presidency from the Old Statehouse in Springfield where Lincoln served & took the oath of office on Lincoln's Bible. And made a big deal of taking the same route by train from New York to Washington as Lincoln, part of the pre-inaugural festivites.
His opinion on what the founding fathers meant when in the Declaration of Independence, the declare all men are created equal,
"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, 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 ... I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything. I do not understand that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. My understanding is that I can just let her alone."
"they did not mean to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not mean to say all men were equal in color, size, intellect, moral development or social capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness in what they did consider all men created equal — equal in certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ... They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society which should be familiar to all: constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even, though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people, of all colors, every where.""What I would most desire would be the separation of the white and black races.""I will say, then, that 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- 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 white and black races which will ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together, there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."
The above remarks were spoken during the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858
The following remark were made to a group of Negroes on July 14, 1862 at the White House:
"Why...should the people of your race be colonized, and where? Why should they leave this country? This is, perhaps, the first question for proper consideration. 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 suffers 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. It is better for both, therefore, to be separated."
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