Reduxing Lincoln....Again

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

I wonder why I never knew that Abe Lincoln, the Republican Party great bulwark, never viewed blacks as equals of whites. As a matter of fact, in Eric Foner's book review of historian Lerone Bennett, Jr. book "Forced Into Glory: Abraham Lincoln's White Dream" (in which he mostly slams and belittles Bennett's book), Foner quotes Bennett as writing that Lincoln "shared the racial prejudices of most of his white contemporaries."

Though not a member of The American Colonization Society, an organization formed in the early 1800's to send free blacks to Africa, Bennett writes that Lincoln was a proponent of their beliefs, according to the book review. The American Colonization Society believed that free slaves would not be able to integrate successfully into American society. The African nation of Liberia was set up to settle blacks into the African continent.

In the same book review, Foner quotes Bennett as writing that Lincoln "favored colonizing blacks outside the United States and explicitly endorsed the state's laws barring blacks from voting, serving on juries, holding office, and intermarrying with whites. He enjoyed minstrel shows and used the word "Nigger" in private conversation and sometimes in speeches."

Another author Eric Foner quotes in his book review is historian Richard Hofstadter. He is quoted as writing in his book, “The American Political Tradition,” that Lincoln opposed “bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the black and white races.” He underscores Lincoln's ability to maintain two contrary thoughts at once and "pointedly juxtaposed Lincoln's 1858 speech in Chicago affirming the equality of man with his address in pro-slavery southern Illinois the same year insisting that he opposed “bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the black and white races.”

Hmmm....Perhaps, I should not wonder why Republicans hold Abraham Lincoln in high esteem, but instead wonder why Black Republicans buy into the great myth.


Tantalizing Tibit: Loyola College Economics professor, Thomas J. DiLorenzo in his article, "The Lincoln Cult's Latest Cover-up," mentions the discovery of a copy of a letter sent by Honest Abe to the governor of Florida "imploring him... to rally political support for a constitutional amendment that would have legally enshrined slavery in the U.S. Constitution."