"What I would most desire would be the separation
of the white and black races." (Spoken at
Springfield, Illinois on July 17th, 1858; from Abraham Lincoln:
Complete Works, 1894, Vol. 1, page 273).
"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 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
be admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be
separated. It is better for both, therefore, to be
separated." (Spoken at the White House to a group of black
community leaders, August 14th, 1862, from
Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol 5, page 371).
"I will say, then, that I am not nor have I ever been in
favor of bringing about in any way the social and political
equality of the black and white 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."
(4th Lincoln-Douglas debate, September 18th, 1858;
Collected Works. Vol. 3, pp. 145-146).
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