A question about Abe Lincoln...

Do you think that Lincoln had other motives for freeing the slaves than simply being a moral issue with him?

Answer #1

According to them, he was thinking merely of the white farmers and machinist of the times and they had transcripts of a debate between him and this other guy to back them up

Answer #2

How does that make sense?

Why would a supremist free the slaves?

I think “some” are confused or trying to find some sort of controversy.

Answer #3

No, I don’t.

He didn’t have to do it - there are few who would have provoked him. I think he did it because he felt that it was unjust.

Answer #4

Thank you. You brought up exactly what I wanted to get at…

Answer #5

When I took American history we were taught that Lincoln freed the slaves to punish the South. Even in the north abolitionists were considered kooks by most people.

Answer #6

http://www.bartleby.com/251/41.html

This is the speech utopia referred to. check it out and check out the whole debate on this site.

Answer #7

You are correct toadaly. Many American’s don’t know that though so yet again I ask, if more American’s knew this, would that change the way we look at him and the things he did?

Answer #8

Lincoln stated that he really didn’t care about slavery as an issue. His only concern was preserving the union, and to him, that meant he had to free the slaves to motivate the North to fight. The way the original proclamation was written, only slaves in areas controlled by the south were freed. It had no power at all unless the North was victorious.

Answer #9

As much as I disgree with Utopia what he said is true. Sometimes bad people will do good things for the wrong reasons. Just a fact of life that we have to deal with.

Answer #10

I just wanted to see if anyone out there knew about Lincoln, the bad guy…

True he did do a mighty deed; a deed that helped him go down in history as one of the greatest presidents but that deed was not for the reason that many American care to believe.

According to some historians, Lincoln really was against slavery but he in no ways thought of blacks as being an equal. He simply didn’t believe it to be right to own another human being. It was a moral issue for him. I agree with what tsierpht said in that sometimes bad people do good deed for the wrong reasons.

But does knowing this change the way we see Lincoln?

Answer #11

but in history class did anyone ever go over the LD Debate?

Answer #12

but, there are some who acuse him of being a supremist

Answer #13

There is much said about Lincoln and his “freeing of the slaves”. Do not forget that ABOVE ALL Lincoln was a politican. He was one of the leading opponents of Slave Power–that is the group of Southern slaveowners he and most Republicans thought were running the government. During the Civil War he adopted the position that Slave Power had to be destroyed and the best way was to free the slaves in the rebellious territories whose power he wished to destroy.

Lincoln wrote, “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…I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.”

In the September 18, 1858 debate, Lincoln said: “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 I believe forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And in as much 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.”

Yes, he freed the slaves, kind of. But remember that theThirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which outlawed slavery everywhere in the United States was not ratified until after Lincoln’s assassination.

Just like the Civil Rights Act was not passed until after President Kennedy’s assassination.

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