Pop quiz

[archerships]

Who said this?

"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 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 I believe will forever 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."

Find out in this fascinating article (PDF) by Donald W. Livingston.

Comments

[dorei.livejournal.com]

Lincoln.

[cappy.livejournal.com]

I know. But I won't ruin it just yet.

And I'll hold my thoughts on it until after someone else has it figured out.

[cappy.livejournal.com]

Well~~ someone did. So~~ this is my main gripe when anyone tries to say that the Civil War was ab freeing the slaves. It was ab M O N E Y, people. Just like every other war.

Yet, it's kind of interesting isn't it? Given the ME right now & our so called reasons for being there & taking Whoever out of power?

It always boils down to MONEY. If some people end up thinking they benefitted, if we can spin that to make it all look better, then woohoo!

But it's always ab MONEY.

[greendalek.livejournal.com]

I know the speaker, but I'll see if anyone else does...

[ladykalana.livejournal.com]

While I hadn't seen that quote before, I guessed it correctly based on my irony detector. Good article. The marginalization and simplification of our history is disturbing, and even more disturbing yet to see it happening in our own lifetime.

[visgoth.livejournal.com]

People are always surprised when I tell them he held that POV.

[joe-tofu.livejournal.com]

Lincoln was a liberal, what do you expect? Integrity?

[dizfactor.livejournal.com]

Calling Lincoln a liberal is not really especially accurate, not really so much because of anything about Lincoln himself but because the political landscape of 2005 doesn't really map neatly backwards onto that of 1865 or 1776 or any other time period.

[mrgeddylee.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. Lincoln was a politician and new full well that he needed to speak for the viewpoint of the large mass of the population. He was also a pragmatist, who felt that it was better to pursue some course of action that might benefit African-Americans and which might also be capable of implementation, rather than marginalizing himself and giving over the political sphere to those who had no interest in the problem at all.

I thought the article that started the discussion was interesting. However, given the political atmosphere of the time, I think it is impossible to take slavery out of the debate. I think it arguably tragic for the cause of small government that an idea as interesting as secession was pursued in the name of so vile an objective.