Lincoln and the Problem of Race: A Decade of Interpretations
Author(s): Arthur Zilversmit
Source: Papers of the Abraham Lincoln Association, Vol. 2 (1980), pp. 22-45
Published by: University of Illinois Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20148806
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and
Lincoln
A Decade
of Race:
the Problem
of Interpretations
ARTHUR
ZILVERSMIT
the idea of "roots," Ameri
before Alex Haley
popularized
i-iong
The
the search for ancestors.
with
cans have been
concerned
been
often
are
has
we?"
"Who
answer
to
the
question,
attempt
"Where did we come from?" Al
answered
by another question,
answers
to
for drafting
have
been
historians
responsible
though
these
questions,
neither
the
questions
nor
the
answers
are
exclu
the domain of historians.
Popular culture has its own
sively within
a real tension
witnessed
we
in
often
and
fact,
answers,
have,
in answering
and
between
history
professional
history
popular
we came from.
about who we are and where
vital questions
our search
race was an overriding
concern,
In the 1960s, when
a heated
to
our
roots
led
at
for self-definition
looking
through
Lincoln
Lincoln.
of
over
Abraham
real
the
meaning
controversy
on
views
his
and
was one in a series of American
fathers,
founding
a guide
for those troubled
days.
provide
slavery and race might
could
as the Great Emancipator
of Lincoln
view
The popular
to racial justice.
commitment
a source for an American
provide
Lincoln
an
to
obvious
lead
could
this
question?if
Yet,
picture
one
over
hundred
in
to
years,
racial
the
way
justice, why,
pointed
22
LINCOLNAND RACE
to follow his path? In February,
had we neglected
1968, a promi
nent black journalist,
Lerone Bennett,
Jr., offered an answer to the
Lincoln's
that we, in fact, had followed
paradox when he charged
stated that Lincoln's
flawed;
path was itself deeply
path. Bennett
was the embodiment
racist tradition.1
of the American
Lincoln
no American
to Bennett,
story was as "false" as the
According
as the Great Emancipator.
of Lincoln
traditional
Lincoln,
picture
who
he charged, was no idealist; he was a "cautious
politician"
was never committed
to
to abolishing
but
only
preventing
slavery
its extension.
of
He was motivated
for the interests
by a concern
not
blacks.
the
needs
of
the
his white
constituents,
oppressed
A. Douglas,
Lincoln
and he
supremacy,
explicitly
supported
to
As
Presi
civil
and
granting
opposed
Negroes.
political
rights
"in a
he
months
the
first
of
his
administration
dent,
spent
eighteen
save
to
and
he
rather
moved
desperate
attempt
pathetic
slavery";
it only because
and the pressure
of circumstances
against
applied
radicals. The Emancipation
Procla
by a small band of dedicated
mation was not a great charter of freedom;
congressional
legisla
During
the celebrated
debates with Stephen
the doctrine
of white
tion had already gone
in areas where Lincoln
further, and the Proclamation
only
applied
it. Moreover,
could not enforce
only a few
was
still equivocating
about
months
before
his death Lincoln
never
to Bennett,
immediate
Lincoln,
emancipation.
according
the idea that the United
did accept
States could be a genuinely
a
and to the very end the President
bi-racial
supported
society,
reconstruction
Lincoln's
virtually
policy of colonization.
policies
Bennett
the needs
of the blacks. Therefore,
concluded,
ignored
not the transcendence,
"Lincoln must be seen as the embodiment,
of the American
is, as we all know, a racist tradi
tradition, which
tion."2
on
Bennett's
article struck a nerve. His charges were broadcast
were
in newspapers.
The issues
radio and television
and
debated
Bennett's
he had raised were
For some Americans,
important.
as it did with a period of great racial tension, was
attack, coinciding
"Was
Bennett,
35-42.
Hbid.,
pp.
35,
Abe
36,
37,
Lincoln
a White
42.
23
Supremacist?"
Ebony,
Feb.,
1968,
pp.
:** i
./ ?v./,
i i I
Decorated
portrait
of Lincoln
in the Illinois House
of Representatives
further evidence
of an irreconcilable
society.
split in American
to
The fact that Bennett was a spokesman
for blacks contributed
in
it
who
the article's
blacks
because
had
been
had,
large
impact
a symbol of liberation
in the first place.
made Lincoln
measure,
Bennett's
article was a literary equivalent
of the Black Power
movement,
of the
split
in the civil
24
rights
coalition,
and
of the
LINCOLNAND RACE
violence
had not only
of the summer of 1967. Bennett
frightening
a
into question
of
beloved
called
the reputation
hero, he had
as the story of
of our history
the American
picture
challenged
toward liberal goals.3
measured
progress
a member
of the New York Times
editorial
Herbert
Mitgang,
board and a Lincoln
scholar, was one of the first to reply to Ben
article
"Was Lincoln
nett's
asked,
Just a
charges.
Mitgang's
was
the answer was a resounding
"No!" Mitgang
The article
of the controversy.
about the context
explicit
"One hundred
and five years after the Emancipation
begins:
is far more relevant,
five months
what
before
Proclamation?and,
the feared summer of 1968, when
frustration
uptight
responding
can again enflame American
in a
to cries of'Black
cities
Power!'
Honkie?"?and
quite
a false Great
an early
wrote
also
Emancipator."
can
to
noted:
result
from
this
harm
Bennett,
reply
pointedly
"Only
to
convince
its
the
effort
Negro
unworthy
population,
especially
restless young generation,
that even Abe Lincoln was just another
white
and Krug gave the impression
Both Mitgang
supremacist."
to blame
if racial violence
broke
that Bennett would
be indirectly
out in the summer of 1968.4
new
civil
war?Abraham
Mark
is being
Lincoln
a
who
historian
Krug,
called
Bennett's
charges against Lincoln were not so easily dismissed
however.
that Ben
by other historians,
they recognized
Although
new
were
not entirely
nett's charges
(several of them had been
Ben
Hofstadter
and Kenneth
Stampp),
anticipated
by Richard
of Lincoln
careful
nett's
consideration
and
picture
required
a symbol
was made
of black
of a black attacking
liberation
by
in his perceptive
comments
at the Seventh
Annual
Abraham
Lincoln
Lincoln
12,1980
111., Feb.
Symposium,
(copy in the Abraham
Springfield,
For the chang
Illinois
Association
State Historical
Papers,
Library,
Springfield).
see Mark
E. Neely,
113 Years
views
of Lincoln,
Jr., "Emancipation:
ing black
Lincoln
Lore, Number
1653, Nov.,
1975, pp. 1-3.
Later,"
New York Times Magazine,
Feb.
"Was Lincoln
11,
Just a Honkie?"
4Mitgang,
about
the Negro,"
"What Lincoln
1968, pp. 35, 100-07;
Chicago
Krug,
Thought
Sec. II, p. 2. The Mitgang
and Krug articles
March
10,1968,
Sun-Times,
Sunday
are only
to Bennett;
is Leo
two of the many
another
example
outraged
replies
3The
Arvarh
significance
Strickland
Kibby,
"Lincoln
Belongs
to the Ages,"
Journal
25
of
the West,
7 (1968),
456-60.
ABRAHAM
LINCOLN
ASSOCIATION
In the historians'
between
past and
appraisal.5
dialogue
the subject of race was increasingly
and Ben
present,
important,
nett had been quite correct
in his assertion
that myths
provide
a reappraisal
little light for present-day
of
problems.
Perhaps
view on slavery and race could help us in avoiding
Lincoln's
the
measured
of the racial tensions
exacerbation
that beset us. In the dozen years
a
in
since Bennett's
of
number
historians
have participated
article,
is
this reexamination.
Where
has this reexamination
led us? What
our understanding
of
Lincoln?
Was
he
the
Great
Eman
today
another white
cipator or merely
supremacist?
a reexamination
Historians
who undertook
of Lincoln's
reputa
a large number
tion discussed
of issues, but for the purposes
of this
I
issues
with
Bennett.
shall
deal
four
raised
major
analysis
by
reconcile
his
Lincoln's
First, how can we
image with
popular
endorsement
the
with
of white
debates
supremacy
during
Doug
a moral
las? Second, was Lincoln
leader in the struggle for eman
ever surrender his belief
in coloniza
cipation? Third, did Lincoln
as
to the problem
to do with
tion
the solution
of what
the freed
he have supported
the radicals of his
finally, would
in providing
in a
for black civil rights and suffrage
to these questions
reconstructed
South? The answers
genuinely
are not, of course, definitive,
but a study of recent scholarship
will
we are
of "where we are, and whither
give us a clearer picture
men? And,
own party
tending."6
I
in defense
of white
the
supremacy
speeches
during
were
an
of
Bennett's
debates
part
important
Lincoln-Douglas
and in recent years have become
the most
fre
among
charges
Lincoln's
5
Hofstadter,
The American
Political
Tradition
and the Men Who Made
It (New
The Era
Books,
1948), pp. 93-136;
Vintage
Stampp,
of Reconstruction,
1865-1877
(New York: Knopf,
1965), pp. 24-49.
is from Lincoln's
6The quotation
in Roy P. Basier,
"House
Divided"
speech,
Pratt and Lloyd
A. Dunlap,
asst. eds., Collected
Dolores
Works
ed., Marion
of
9 vols.
Abraham
1953^
Lincoln,
Press,
(New Brunswick,
N.J.: Rutgers
University
cited as Collected
II, 461 (hereafter
1955),
Works).
York:
26
LINCOLNAND RACE
In the following
of Lincoln.
remarks made
quently
quoted words
at the fourth debate,
at Charleston,
to Douglas's
he responded
he
that
racial
favored
and amalgamation:
charges
equality
I am
nor
not,
ever
social and political
am not
nor
ever
have
have
equality
been
in favor
been
of bringing
of the white
in favor
about
in any
the
way
I
and black races, [applause]...
voters
of making
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 will for ever forbid the
races
two
living
together
as they
cannot
inasmuch
must
am
on
terms
so
live,
be a position
of superior
and
in favor
the superior
of having
of
social
while
inferior,
position
and
they
and
do
political
remain
I as much
assigned
equality.
together
as any
to the white
other
And
there
man
race.7
to dismiss
who defended
Lincoln
these re
attempted
as unimportant.
for
that
Mitgang,
example,
argued
Douglas
to the wall and forced him to temporize,"
"had backed Lincoln
and that late in his presidential
career, Lincoln
did, in fact, come
out for full Negro
citizenship.8
A more
is to reexamine
fruitful
Lincoln's
words
approach
Those
marks
George M. Fredrickson
points out that although Lincoln
in
at
the
he agreed with Douglas
debate
Ottawa
that
that
argued
the Negro
in many
"is not my equal
the
respects,"
only respect
that he was certain about was the physical
trait of "color." Lincoln
was tentative
in identifying
were
in which
ways
Negroes
"per
carefully.
he avoided
haps" not the equal of whites. Moreover,
using words
in describing
like "innate"
the inequalities
the races,
between
were
the
of
whether
those
the
differences
question
leaving open
see also the first debate
at Ottawa,
7Ibid.,
Ill, 145-46;
ibid., pp. 12-30.
8
that Lincoln
later came to support political
p. 103. To demonstrate
Mitgang,
from Lincoln's
letter to General
quotes
rights for Negroes,
extensively
Mitgang
For reasons
I am convinced
discussed
below,
James J.Wads worth
(pp. 106-07).
is spurious.
that the Wadsworth
document
Fawn
Brodie,
tack,
taking a different
argues
opponent
to terms
America,"
was
not only debating
in the debates
his
with
Lincoln
Douglas,
a kind of inner dialogue
with himself,
but was also "conducting
coming
in
to black men"
Hero
with
his own
Political
ambivalence
("The
46 [1970],
Review,
50-51).
Virginia
Quarterly
that
27
ABRAHAMLINCOLN ASSOCIATION
a similar
E. B. Smith makes
Historian
of circumstance.9
in
he observes
the Ottawa
that the qualifying
words
point when
was obviously
to his audi
that "Lincoln
reveal
speech
playing
. . . was
but
for the benefit
also hedging
of his con
ence,
result
science."10
sees Lin
an eminent
E. Fehrenbacher,
Lincoln
historian,
on
race
as
disclaimers
rather than
coln's statements
"essentially
to Fehrenbacher,
"in
those statements
affirmations."
According
to
the maximum
that he was willing
for political
reasons,
dicated,
Don
and the minimum
that he claimed
for the Negro.
deny the Negro
on points not at issue, designed
to fortify
concessions
They were
at issue?namely
of
him on the point
the extension
that was
if
Fehrenbacher
adds
that
Lincoln
dif
had
slavery."
responded
to Douglas
at Charleston,
"the Lincoln
of history
ferently
simply
not exist."11 Lincoln
would
the least racist position
that
adopted
not disqualify
in the context
him from consideration
would
of a
racist
society.12
out that we
points
Lincoln
claimed for the
Ottawa
address.
the differences
he saw
Despite
was
reason
in
"no
Lincoln
did
hold
there
that
races,
Professor
Fredrickson
to what
attention
careful
also
should
devote
in the
Negro
between
the world
the
why
"A Man but Not a Brother:
Abraham
Lincoln
and Racial Equal
41 (1975), 46-48;
Collected
III, 16.
of Southern
History,
Works,
"Abraham
Lincoln
52
Wisconsin
Realist,"
Magazine
of History,
are viewed
163. Smith
states that when
at Ottawa
Lincoln's
remarks
(1968-1969),
the background
of its time, occasion,
and purpose"
"a
"against
they constitute
rather advanced
racial discrimination."
plea against
11
Lincoln
and the Negro,"
Civil War
Fehrenbacher,
"Only His Stepchildren:
9Fredrickson,
ity," Journal
10
Smith,
History, 20 (1974), 303.
12
on slavery
Breiseth
that Lincoln's
and Negro
argues
positions
Christopher
"well
in advance
of the views
in Sangamon
of his neighbors
rights were
County";
see Breiseth,
in the 1858 Campaign,"
in
and Springfield
"Lincoln,
Douglas,
et al., eds., The Public
Cullom
Davis
and the Private
Lincoln
South
(Carbondale:
ern Illinois University
See also Strickland,
"The Illinois
Press,
1979), pp. 101-20.
of Lincoln's
Attitude
Toward
and the Negro,"
Background
Slavery
Journal
of the
State Historical
56 (1963), 474-94;
Illinois
H. Berwanger,
The
Society,
Eugene
Frontier
and the Slavery
Exten
Against
Slavery: Western
Anti-Negro
Prejudice
sion Controversy
of Illinois
(Urbana: University
Press,
1967), pp. 44-59,
123-37;
V. Jacque
Civil War
Free but Not Equal:
The Midwest
and the Negro
Voegeli,
of Chicago
Press,
University
1967), pp. 1-9.
(Chicago:
28
during
the
T=rtp
Charles
Keek's
"Lincoln
and the Boy1
ABRAHAMLINCOLN ASSOCIATION
in the
to all the natural rights enumerated
the negro is not entitled
the right to life, liberty and the
Declaration
of Independence,
the context of his own times,
pursuit of happiness."
Judged within
a middle
as
be
Fredrickson
notes,
position
Lincoln,
occupied
the
tween
would
like
those who,
every
Negro
deny
Douglas,
human
right and the small group of abolitionists
of racial equality.13
the radical doctrine
who
supported
II
Bennett's
claim that Lincoln was a white
supremacist
Although
the
conventional
picture of him, the charge that he was not
jolted
struck
and was, at best, a reluctant emancipator,
really antislavery
historic
at the very heart of the popular understanding
of Lincoln's
was not a charter for black
Proclamation
role. If the Emancipation
freedom,
why were we celebrating
was
the basis for our almost
What
in February?
History
towards
attitude
worshipful
Negro
Lincoln?
meets
recent Lincoln
Bennett's
B. Oates,
biographer,
con
on.
to
had been
Lincoln
head
Oates,
According
charges
Yet
since his earliest
Lincoln
recog
days.14
antislavery
sistently
in the South, and in
nized that the Constitution
slavery
protected
and the
the early days of the war both his constitutional
scruples
action
slave states prevented
need for the support of the border
that
Lincoln
emancipation
against
perceived
slavery. Moreover,
to Oates,
in the North. According
Lincoln
would
be unpopular
Stephen
an emancipation
"would
alienate
policy
a
in
the
Northern
racial
Democrats,
ignite
powder
keg
cause a civil war in the rear."15 By emphasizing
possibly
feared
that
Northern
states, and
Northern
but Not a Brother,"
"A Man
^Collected
p. 46.
III, 16; Fredrickson,
Works,
14
Lincoln
None:
The Life of Abraham
Toward
(New York:
Oates, With Malice
1977), pp. 37-<39.
Harper,
15
and the Civil War Era
Our Fiery Trial: Abraham
Lincoln,
Oates,
John Brown,
of Massachusetts
Press,
1979), p. 73.
University
(Amherst:
30
LINCOLNAND RACE
to emancipation,
is able to depict
Oates
opposition
in
times
ahead
of
his
1862, he moved
when,
being
towards
Lincoln
as
cautiously
emancipation.
Herman
Belz agrees with Oates
that
Constitutional
historian
was the product
com
the Proclamation
of a genuine
ideological
to freedom. The military
mitment
needs of the nation,
invoked by
were merely
in justifying
the Proclamation,
Lincoln
"legal fic
reason
in
for it, considered
tion." Belz contends
that "the real
on
was
to
broad historical
perspective,
slavery based
hostility
commitment
which
to republicanism
and
rested."16
republicanism
the principle
of equality
on
to revoke the Proc
Lincoln
the temptation
Moreover,
rejected
nor the possibility
Northern
of making
lamation. Neither
pressure
to abandon
led him
letter to
Lincoln's
peace
emancipation.
or lack
is seen by Oates not as proof of hesitation
Horace Greeley
to emancipation
of commitment
but as part of a strategy of making
war aim.17 In that letter
as a legitimate
emancipation
acceptable
had said that if he could "save the Union without
freeing
do it, but he went on to say that if he could
any slave" he would
"save it by freeing all the slaves" he would
do that. "What I do
it helps
I believe
about slavery, and the colored
race, I do because
to save the Union."18 When
Lin
he wrote
the letter to Greeley,
Lincoln
to issue the Emancipation
coln had already resolved
Proclamation
was
a
Se
Union
ward's
he
for
(at
victory
suggestion
only waiting
before announcing
did
that Lincoln
it), and there is no evidence
not intend to follow through on his resolve. What
the letter was
16Belz, Emancipation
Civil War Era
(New
"military
Lincoln's
necessity,
decision
and Equal
York: Norton,
humanitarianism,
for liberation";
Lincoln
Abraham
in the
Politics
and Constitutionalism
Rights:
that
Sinkler
holds
1978), pp. 44^5.
George
its part in
and public
each played
opinion
see Sinkler,
The Racial Attitudes
of American
to Theodore
Roosevelt
(Garden
City, N.Y.:
Presidents
from
Anchor
Books,
1972), p. 63.
Toward
17Oates, With Malice
None,
"Far from establishing
Lincoln's
point:
demonstrates
beyond
War
and Reconstruction,
Civil
Trends
and Interpretations,"
^Collected
Works,
V, 388.
[to Greeley]
"The Civil
O. Curry makes
the same
p. 313. Richard
this statement
fundamental
conservatism,
as a politician"
his shrewdness
question
(Curry,
A Critical
Overview
of Recent
1861-1877:
War
History,
31
20
[1974],
222).
ABRAHAM
LINCOLN ASSOCIATION
to do was to make clear that any action to free the slaves
intended
as a measure
to save the Union.
Unionists
should be understood
were
in
that they
told
advance
who opposed
emancipation
being
to
restore
the
not
to
but
free
slaves
the
be
would
Union,
fighting
sees the
with the help of an emancipation
therefore,
policy. Oates,
a shrewd political
as an example
of how Lincoln,
letter to Greeley
leader, was
preparing
the way
for the acceptance
of a radical
new
step.19
Oates holds
and other historians,
directly with Bennett
Arguing
"went further than anything
that the Emancipation
Proclamation
Act had not only
had done." The Second Confiscation
Congress
extensive
but had also exempted
required
procedures
judicial
on the other hand,
"Lincoln's
Proclamation,
loyal slaveowners.
was
a sweeping
as an institution
in the rebel
blow against bondage
of seces
free all the slaves there?those
states, a blow that would
eman
was not a reluctant
sionists
and loyalists
alike." Lincoln
meas
most
the
and
the
Proclamation
"was
cipator,
revolutionary
ure ever to come from an American
up to that time."20
president
was
as a reluctant
view of Lincoln
The revisionist
emancipator
an
Ludwell
article
reinforced
Johnson, published
by
important
by
Professor
the same year as Bennett's.
Johnson argues that as late as
was still equivocating
about immediate
1865, Lincoln
February,
told Alex
to
Lincoln
and total emancipation.
Johnson,
According
as
as
much
be
that emancipation
ander Stephens
delayed
might
receive
still
five years and that slaveowners
compensation
might
was willing
to make
such
Lincoln
for the loss of their bondsmen.
a
saw
for
the
he
need
because
concessions,
speculates,
Johnson
into chaos
and
to the war
lest the South
end
lapse
quick
the
radical
into
of
hands
the
that
would
play
anarchy?conditions
forestall
of Lincoln's
members
party. A quick end to the war would
a radical reconstruction
of the South.21
Toward
p. 313.
None,
19Oates, With Malice
"
in
'The
80. Oates
makes
the same point
pp. 77-78,
20Oates, Our Fiery Trial,
of the Slaves,"
Lincoln
and the Emancipation
Abraham
Man of our Redemption':
9 (1979), 20-21.
Studies
Presidential
Quarterly,
21
to the Problem
of Peace
"Lincoln's
Solution
3
Terms,
1864-1865,"
Johnson,
is frequently
article
576-86.
34 (1968),
Johnson's
History,
Journal
of Southern
after the war.
for blacks
in discussions
of Lincoln's
cited
plans
3*
"Lincoln Entering
Richmond"
33
by Thomas Nast
ABRAHAMLINCOLN ASSOCIATION
at the Hampton
account
Roads
of Lincoln's
position
Johnson's
went unchallenged
until a recent article by the editor
Conference
of Lincoln
Lore, Mark E. Neely,
Jr., who points out that the only
five years
record of what was said there is the account,
published
was
Even
if
after the event,
memory
Stephens's
by Stephens.
no
an
means
was
time
witness.
the
that
he
By
impartial
by
good,
were
a
deal
had
and
there
many
wrote,
great
happened
Stephens
cherish the memory
of a Lincoln who
Stephens might
to the South than the Republicans
who
been kinder
Reconstruction.22
of
took charge
eventually
to Oates,
the
Lincoln
wavered
only once?during
According
terms that
he considered
dark days of August,
1864?when
peace
"But the next day Lincoln
did not include emancipation.
changed
to fight the war
he vowed
awakened
his mind. With
resolution,
reasons why
have
would
to unconditional
surrender
and to stick with
emancipa
through
himself put it, once the Eman
tion come what may." 23As Lincoln
it could not be revoked
issued
had been
Proclamation
cipation
to life."24
than the dead can be brought
"any more
even if Lincoln
the title Great Eman
does not deserve
Finally,
he is entitled
cipator for his Proclamation,
effort in winning
determined
congressional
that clearly
and
amendment
stitutional
in the United
States.25
slavery
to it for his
skillful and
of the con
ended
unequivocally
ratification
Ill
Lincoln's
blacks
attitude
towards the future of the newly-freed
a perennial
For
the
has been
historical
years
many
question.
held
that
Radi
school of Reconstruction
dominant
historiography
was a grievous
the
cal Reconstruction
and tragic error; moreover,
22
"The Lincoln
Theme
Since Randall's
and Perils
of
Call: The Promises
Neely,
1 (1979), 24-25.
Lincoln
Professionalism,"
Papers
Association,
of the Abraham
23Oates, Our Fiery
p. 82.
Trial,
^Collected
VI, 408.
Works,
"
25
With Malice
Toward
and
'The Man of our Redemp
Oates,
None,
pp. 404-06,
"
22.
p.
tion,'
34
LINCOLN AND RACE
of that school was
that Reconstruction
dominant
assumption
and much more protective
under Lincoln would have been milder
than was that adminis
of white
Southern
rights and sensibilities
of
time
the
Bennett's
tered by the Congress.26
article, however,
By
all but replaced
had been
the traditional
interpretation
by the
in order to
had been necessary
view that Radical Reconstruction
some protection
for
the results of the war and to provide
safeguard
Unionists.
these
Under
blacks
and white
the rights of Southern
the contention
that Reconstruction
would
have
circumstances,
as unwilling
to
the President
been milder
under Lincoln
depicts
to protect
of the ex-slaves;
take the steps necessary
the freedom
once again, Lincoln
was not on the side of those who wanted
to
further the cause of black rights.
to do with
the
what
particularly
early in the Civil War. One of the
a
solutions
by Lincoln was the old idea of colonization,
promoted
in
to
which
leave
the
United
States
blacks
would
be
asked
plan
their own nation. Bennett
and to establish
and other revisionists
is
have charged
that Lincoln's
support for colonization
continuing
The
former
issues
slaves,
of Reconstruction,
had appeared
to countenance
for
full equality
further evidence
of his refusal
in this country. An important question
for those who study
blacks
views on race has been: Why did Lincoln
Lincoln's
support col
ever
he
and
did
this
abandon
onization,
proposal?
from the charges of racism
Some of those who defended
Lincoln
he had been a dedicated
that although
conceded
colonizationist,
as he evolved
to
he abandoned
"From Intolerance
that position
is sharply critical
On the other hand, Oates, who
Moderation."27
as
of the revisionists,
Lincoln's
support of colonization
explains
a
in
fears
of
for
Northern
strategy
easing
large part, merely
being,
those who feared
the consequences
of emancipation.
Presumably
that the freed slaves would
flock to the North would be pacified by
26For
an
excellent
survey
pp. 3-23.
Stampp,
27Paul David
Nelson,
Lincoln's
Racial
Abraham
(1974), 2-3.
of changing
"From
Intolerance
Views,"
Register
35
attitudes
towards
to Moderation:
of the Kentucky
Reconstruction,
The
Historical
Evolution
Society,
see
of
72
ABRAHAMLINCOLN ASSOCIATION
a proposal
to resettle blacks elsewhere.
Shortly before
issuing the
Lincoln
therefore,
Emancipation
Proclamation,
Preliminary
"made a great fuss about colonization?a
ritual he went
through
some new antislavery
Once
move."
every time he contemplated
answer
to Northern
he found another
fears of black flight?the
in
Lorenzo
Thomas
refugee plan set up under Adjutant General
the Mississippi
Valley?Lincoln
dropped
his
public
of
support
colonization.28
a provocative
G. S. Boritt, who has written
study of Lincoln's
colonization
ideas, also sees the President's
program as motivated
in part by strategic
interests.
out, Lincoln's
Yet, Boritt points
was
inconsistent
with
his
for
colonization
support
deep interest in
It was
and understanding
of economics.
clear to anyone who
resources
in any depth
the question
that the economic
analyzed
to resettle any significant
portion of the black population
required
States was simply staggering. Why
of the United
then did Lincoln
on
this
Boritt
the
draws
support
impractical
policy?
psychological
as an explanation
defense
mechanism
of avoidance
of Lincoln's
that
the
behavior.
President
avoided
the ques
Arguing
analyzing
tion because
he saw no feasible
at the time, Boritt
alternative
"One cannot escape
the feeling
that by 1862, even as
concludes,
to allow him
the colonization
fever was cresting,
Lincoln
began
of the fact that the idea of large scale immigration
self a glimpse
. . realistic."
was not.
it
For Lincoln,
the idea served a purpose;
own
more
to
his
the
and
uncertainties,
helped
"allay
importantly
of whites."
fears of the vast majority
After emancipation,
however,
it was no longer necessary
to believe
in colonization,
when
Lin
coln abandoned
it.29
no longer endorsed
Lincoln
in public
colonization
Although
after December
of 1863,
28Oates, With Malice
the early 1850s "Lincoln
tion" and came to reject
there
is still the question
of whether
he
that in
None,
pp. 312, 342. Gary R. Planck
argues
the program
of black coloniza
enthusiastically
supported
it only in 1864, after the failure of the Chiriqui
and A'Vache
and Black
"Abraham
Lincoln
Colonization:
and
(Planck,
Theory
72 [1970],
Lincoln
63, 75).
Herald,
to the Colony
"The Voyage
of Lincolnia:
The
Sixteenth
President,
experiments
Practice,"
29
Boritt,
Black Colonization,
Toward
and
the Defense
Mechanism
(1975), 620-21, 624, 629.
36
of Avoidance,"
Historian,
37
BENJAMINBUTLER
ever
Fred
abandoned
for resettling
blacks.
completely
hopes
re
account
is generally
of Lincoln's
racial views
rickson, whose
his support of coloniza
that Lincoln
continued
visionist,
argues
tion to the very end. Fredrickson
maintains
that in April,
1865,
Lincoln
told General
Butler
that he still saw coloniza
Benjamin
race war in the South. "If
tion as an important
step for avoiding
is substantially
to be,
Butler's
recollection
correct, as it appears
to his dying
then one can only conclude
that Lincoln
continued
in the
of racial harmony
and equality
day to deny the possibility
contention
is directly
United
States."30
That
by
challenged
con
of the evidence,
evaluation
who, after a painstaking
Neely,
cludes
30
that the
Fredrickson,
interview
"A Man
with
but Not
Butler
a Brother,"
37
could
pp.
56-57.
not have
taken place
ABRAHAM
LINCOLN ASSOCIATION
Butler
said it did and that there is no reason to believe
In the
Butler's
but a self-serving
story is anything
"fantasy."
sence of any other evidence,
we
must
conclude
therefore,
correct
in his assertion
that the President
John Hay was
when
abandoned
colonization
by July,
that
ab
that
had
1864.31
IV
Once Lincoln
he was still faced with
the
colonization
rejected
of determining
that would prevail between
question
relationships
the freedmen
and their former masters. Would
blacks have civil
and political
In at
blacks be awarded
rights? Should
suffrage?
to ascertain
views on these issues, historians
Lincoln's
tempting
a small number
have been
for
forced to interpret
of documents
clues to what Lincoln
not struck him down
would
have
after
done had the assassin's
the war ended.
bullet
shortly
in a
has put Lincoln's
Reconstruction
policy
as
out that the traditional picture of Lincoln
a
to
control
of
vindic
group
struggling
desperately
ar
is simply wrong.
from his own party,
Trefousse
Hans L. Trefousse
new light by pointing
a conservative,
tive radicals
with
that Lincoln's
differences
the radicals were
often
was
matters
to
of
and
that
Lincoln
able
make
merely
timing
good
use of the radicals when
an atmosphere
in which
his
creating
on slavery would
actions
be accepted.32
If we accept
such an
it is easy
of Lincoln's
with the radicals,
interpretation
relationship
gues
31
Butler's
and Black Colonization:
Lincoln
"Abraham
Spuri
Benjamin
Neely,
of
In his 1977 biography
ous Testimony,"
25 (1979),
77-83.
Civil War History,
to support
coloniza
had ceased
Oates
that even after the President
holds
Lincoln,
as "the
in the abstract,"
to view
he may have continued
tion in public
it, "maybe
in America"
Toward
to avoid
racial conflict
None,
p. 342).
(With Malice
only way
for
Fredrickson
his mind,
and he chided
Oates
had changed
By 1979, however,
on Butier's
p. 138n).
Trial,
testimony
(Our Fiery
relying
s Vanguard
Lincoln
The Radical
Justice
32Trefousse,
Republicans:
for Racial
1969), pp. 183,211,285-86.
(New York: Knopf,
in the last months
of his administration,
"was
reconstruction"
(p. 304).
38
Trefousse
approaching
that Lincoln,
concludes
on
the radicals'
position
LINCOLNAND RACE
to believe
to lag only a little behind
that he would
have continued
even the most visionary members
of the Republican
party as they
measures
to
and
other
advocated
the
protect
suffrage
designed
of
the
freedmen.
rights
views on the rela
For the most part Oates
follows Trefousse's
the President
and congressional
leaders, going
sees a close
term
the
Oates
"radicals."
using
a
between
Sumner,
relationship
leading radical, Senator Charles
Lincoln.33
But in describing
and both Mary and Abraham
Secre
tary Salmon P. Chase's
role, Oates comes close to the older view of
tionship between
so far as to avoid
the relationship
Lincoln's
between
that
Lincoln
reconstruction
and the radicals.
of December,
plan
Oates
charges
1863, was
all congressional
praised
by virtually
Republicans,
including
to it apparently
for purely politi
Sumner, but that Chase objected
On Reconstruction,
cal motives.34
there
therefore, Oates
suggests
was no real ideological
on
critics
between
Lincoln
and
his
split
the left. Further,
Oates maintains
have
that most
biographers
the Second
the Pres
Inaugural Address.
misinterpreted
Although
mean
not
ident did promise
he in
for
all"
he
did
that
"charity
to be gentle with
the South: "Still preoccupied
with
the
tended
war as a grim purgation
his
which would
and regenerate
cleanse
a fairly tough policy
endorsed
toward the con
country, Lincoln
South."35
quered
An important
of those who
document
employed
by several
defend
from the charges
of racism is a letter to General
Lincoln
said to have been written
James Wadsworth,
by Lincoln
early in
1864. The letter not only discusses
reconstruction
but also goes
much
remarks up to that time.
further than the President's
public
33Oates
called
refers
radicals."
to the Radical
sometimes
He
Republicans
uses
the
as "liberal
term
radicals
and
Republicans"
within
quotation
as "so
marks
(WithMalice Toward None, pp. 252-53, 364).
371-72.
pp. 273, 406-07,
**lbid.,
35
on the other hand,
Our Fiery
Bennett's
Oates,
p. 84. Sinkler,
Trial,
supports
he maintains
to decide
that Lincoln
would
have allowed
Southerners
for
views;
to treat the freedmen,
to
themselves
how
and he adds that "it is not too difficult
infer that the President's
to include
in his plans
failure
for Reconstruction
blacks
was due
on the race problem"
in part to his views
pp. 64, 65).
(Racial Attitudes,
39
ABRAHAMLINCOLN ASSOCIATION
endorsed
suffrage: "I can
Negro
apparently
is
how, under the circum
amnesty
granted,
return
in
universal
or, at
suffrage,
exacting
and military
service."36
basis of intelligence
letter that Lincoln
defenders
Lincoln's
argue on the basis ofthat
in the debates
he had made
the statements
far beyond
had moved
that he favored
he denied
black political
when
with Douglas
the
to be a very weak reed. Although
rights.37 Yet this letter proves
original of the letter has never been found, the editors of Lincoln's
In the letter Lincoln
not see, if universal
I can avoid
stances,
least, suffrage on the
it in
lent it apparent
Works
authenticity
by including
footnote makes
As the editors'
their publication.
clear, however,
It was found in the New York
the source of the letter is suspect.
it from a periodical
to
in
have
claims
turn,
Tribune,
which,
copied
note that "no other
The editors
Advocate.
called
the Southern
Collected
letter to Wadsworth."38
reference
has been found to the original
a
who
careful
Professor
conducted
study of the letter and
Johnson,
concludes
that several para
the circumstances
of its publication,
are
not
I
would
authentic.39
letter
ofthat
go further. I can
graphs
see no reason why we should assume
that any part of the letter is
authentic?it
doesn't
sound
like Lincoln,
and the ideas expressed
101-02.
^Collected
VII,
Works,
37
out that both Bennett
Durden
points
pp. 106-07;
Krug, p. 2. Robert
Mitgang,
Butler's
on spurious
Bennett
evidence:
relied
and Mitgang
Benjamin
accepted
the
while
to support
continued
colonization,
accepted
Mitgang
story that Lincoln
or Equali
Honkie
"A. Lincoln:
of the letter to Wadsworth
(Durden,
authenticity
71 [1972],
pp. 286-87).
tarian," South Atlantic
Quarterly,
the
that it printed
claimed
The Tribune
^Collected
VII,
101-102,102n.
Works,
in it Lincoln
"universal
endorsed
letter because
and, the
amnesty"
supposedly
from the
"is still withheld
of the beloved
President
that desire
to grant, without
it is known
that it was his intention
any
had
If Lincoln
absurd.
That contention
is, of course,
pardon."
would
have
to grant a blanket
been willing
supporters
loyal Union
pardon, most
to allow
of the
too much
the leaders
The North
suffered
been
had
outraged.
as usual
the
to resume
States
business
after the war. At a minimum,
Confederate
not have been
and those guilty of war crimes would
of the Confederacy
top leaders
newspaper
claimed,
South,
notwithstanding
a general
exception,
for pardons.
eligible
of the Wadsworth
The Authenticity
"Lincoln
and Equal
Rights:
39Johnson,
32 (1966),
83-87.
Johnson
Interestingly,
Letter,"
History,
Journal
of Southern
on "universal
and "universal
does not argue that the paragraph
suffrage"
amnesty"
is spurious.
40
LINCOLN AND RACE
in
it are
Although
Wadsworth
have
with what we
know
about Lincoln's
wrote
the letter.
supposedly
nature of most of the
the dubious
Johnson established
record on race
Lincoln's
letter, those who defended
able to argue
that other evidence
the
substantiates
not
consonant
at the time he
thoughts
been
President's
stitutional
has wasted
views on Negro
con
generous
rights. As the eminent
historian Harold Hyman
has put it, "Professor
Johnson
his efforts to sunder the links that bind Lincoln
to the
of a century past, the chain still holds." Hyman
rests
egalitarians
on Lincoln's
his case mostly
with
the reconstruction
of
dealing
not only suggested
a
Louisiana.
Lincoln
letter to Gov
(in private
ernor Michael
that some Negroes
be given
the vote, he
Hahn)
the
in
recommendation
his
and he fur
repeated
public
address;
ther suggested
that blacks be provided with public
In that
schools.
were
final address
not limited
Lincoln
to
ideas that
expressed
and Hyman
contends
that Lincoln was moving
further
Louisiana,
along
Hyman
would
the
have
that Lincoln
already
of giving
full rights to the freedmen.
Although
to say how far Lincoln
that it is impossible
gone, the friends of black rights "shared confidence
in the happy direction
would
he had
keep moving
lines
concedes
taken."40
The
contention
that Lincoln's
for Louisiana
indicate
policies
that he was moving
to a revolutionary
recon
of
rapidly
policy
the South on the basis of black suffrage is the thesis of an
structing
a
exciting new study by Peyton McCrary. McCrary moves
beyond
"Lincoln
for Negroes:
The
of the
and Equal
40Hyman,
Irrelevancy
Rights
"
12 (1966), 259,261,262-63,264.
'Wadsworth
Civil War History,
Letter,'
Johnson
to Hyman,
to those who
defend
Lincoln's
record on race that
replied
conceding
to circumstances
to support
Lincoln
did adapt
and might
well
the
have moved
as circumstances
radical
when
that was necessary;
however,
position
changed,
Lincoln
would
Hayes's
too would
have
have
concluded:
"Can anyone
doubt
that he
Johnson
changed.
in
of 1877,
if he had been
reactionary
compromise
A Reply,"
13
Civil War History,
and Equal
Rights:
too
is important.
If we stress Lincoln's
point
adaptability
the
accepted
("Lincoln
place?"
[1967], 66-73).
Johnson's
we concede
one of the major
much
points
41
at issue?his
moral
stature.
ABRAHAMLINCOLN ASSOCIATION
of Lincoln
defense
was
tion: Lincoln
from the attacks
to a new
of revisionists
leader of a revolution
asser
in the
the revolutionary
all
that
starts
with
the
virtually
assumption
McCrary
making.
a realist.
was
Professor
share: Lincoln
historians
McCrary
to reconstruction
then goes on to argue that "a radical approach
. . .because
the
was more
than Banks' moderate
realistic
policy
civil war, and in such
nation was in the midst
of a revolutionary
of governmental
crises only the forceful allocation
power by the
as
a stable postwar order." Therefore
victors can produce
Lincoln,
to move
a realist, would
the policies
towards
have continued
the
radicals.41
advocated
by
cites are Lincoln's
of the
that McCrary
The evidence
approval
hint
his
which
Bureau
and
last
Freedmen's
speech,
legislation
a new policy. Lincoln's
to
soon announce
decision
that he might
in Louisiana
the radicals
for elections
be
undermine
by calling
was not, McCrary
evi
convention
fore a constitutional
argues,
that he
conservatism
but rather itwas evidence
dence of Lincoln's
P.
At
General
Banks.
Nathaniel
had been badly misled
last,
by
was headed
in the wrong direc
that Louisiana
Lincoln
recognized
re
to recognize
of the Hahn
the fragile quality
tion; he "came
electoral
support and became more comfortable
gime's
of
prospect
politician,
Negro
suffrage. As a pragmatic
man with a commitment
to social justice for the freedmen,
that at the
the conclusion
could hardly have escaped
war there was nowhere
to go but to the left."42
of
Lerone
article of 1968 was the product
Bennett's
of the New Left were
American
blacks and members
41
McCrary,
with
if not
the
as a
Lincoln
of the
end
the times.
convinced
The Louisiana
Experiment
critical
1978), pp. xi, xii. For a more
in Civil War
C. Ripley,
and Freedmen
Slaves
judgment
in his
State University
Louisiana
Press,
1976). Neely,
review
of McCrary's
book
Lore, Number
1693, March,
1979, p. 2), main
(Lincoln
on
over the existing
literature
a great advance
"makes
tains that although
McCrary
overstates
his case."
he somewhat
the subject...
The argument
399-404.
VIII,
Works,
pp. 356, 9, 11, 210; Collected
?McCrary,
historians
was
a revolutionary
of socialist
is developed
that Lincoln
by a group
Lincoln
and the broad coalition
who
that "Abraham
from DeKalb,
Illinois,
argue
a
because
that made
they overthrew
up the Republican
Party were
revolutionary
at their
constitutional
every means
they used
system?because
property
fully
(Princeton,
Abraham
Lincoln
and Reconstruction:
University
N.J.: Princeton
on Lincoln's
role, see Peter
Louisiana
(Baton Rouge:
Press,
42
LINCOLN AND RACE
that American
society was
a
of
corrupt heritage.
product
were
impatient with history;
flawed
and that it was
the
deeply
the
the
1960s
radicals
of
Moreover,
they saw the past as a dead weight
in the present?and
action was what
that could only limit action
Our golden
age lay in the future, not the past.
they wanted.
if
the
the
1960s were
radicals
of
Yet,
impatient with history,
they
a
in
service
the reexamination
valuable
of our
performed
leading
from new
our understanding
of our
perspectives,
enriching
not
most
historians
have
Bennett's
history. Although
accepted
on Lincoln,
we have not merely
come back to where
we
views
a
out
We
We
started.
have learned
have found
that a
great deal.
not
of things
to
number
did
letter
probably
happen?the
at Hampton
the equivocation
about emancipation
Wadsworth,
and the interview
with General
Butler. Our picture
of
Roads,
to the radical wing
of his party has also
Lincoln's
relationship
as hapless
been profoundly
altered. We no longer see Lincoln
past
defender
pled
of the Constitution
politicians.
Lincoln
the onslaught
of unprinci
against
has been put back into the Republican
party.
We also have a new appreciation
of the Emancipation
Proclama
was a
tion. The Proclamation,
its pedestrian
despite
language,
act that went beyond what Congress
had done and
revolutionary
that inexorably
the nature of the Civil War. We also have
changed
a new appreciation
reconstruction
We no
of Lincoln's
policies.
to the Proclama
wedded
longer see a Lincoln who was hopelessly
tion of December,
with the times
1863, but one who was moving
to see, as the radicals had, the need for fundamen
and had begun
tal social
changes
in the South.
to extra-legal
coercion
and armed
from legal electoral
struggle,
politics
In
American
their purpose."
"Lincoln
and the Second
Revolution,"
is
Times
20. A similar
These
Feb.
9-15,
1977, pp.
12-14,
argument
(Chicago),
as Revolutionary,"
Lincoln
Civil War
"Abraham
by Otto H. Olson,
developed
was
a
25 (1979),
In contrast
to those who
213-24.
claim
that Lincoln
History,
sure
maintains
made
Louis
that the federal
S. Gerteis
government
revolutionary,
not be revolutionary."
that the changes
Moreover,
by the war "would
produced
on the side of conservatism
was repeatedly
in deal
exercised
Lincoln's
influence
command,
in effecting
to Freedom:
From Contraband
black rights. See Gerteis,
Greenwood
Conn.:
Southern
1861-1865
Blacks,
(Westport,
78, 148.
5, 30-31,
ing with
Towards
pp.
43
Federal
Press,
Policy
1973),
Dwight D. Eisenhower
President.
Republican
painted
this portrait
44
in tribute
to the first
LINCOLN AND RACE
As we continue
to study Lincoln
we continue
our
to define
selves. Most
historians
have discarded
of the saintly
the myth
Great Emancipator,
but they have also rejected
the counter myth
as a hopeless
of Lincoln
racist.43 We are judging Lincoln
by differ
ent standards now from those we used a decade
sense of
Our
ago.
has changed. We are no longer confident
leadership
can solve our problems,
leaders
and in the post
a
the
of
idea
President
who moves
era,
Vietnam,
post-Watergate
in implementing
our
far beyond
the nation
his ideas arouses
are
more
now
We
to
far
the
conditions
suspicions.
recognize
ready
that limit the actions
of strong leaders for good or for ill.
are clearer to us now than
Within
the limits of leadership,
which
presidential
that strong
is still a relevant figure. He shows
ago, Lincoln
they were a decade
us how, despite
in
the national will, a great President
fluctuations
use
can
as
his office to support reform. His image is still available
to those reformers who can use a prestigious
comfort
American
hero in their corner.
43
As Fehrenbacher
someone
who
lived
word
itself has been
has pointed
in describing
"racist"
out, the use of the word
in a different
the
real complications.
age presents
Moreover,
in many ways. As I use it here,
defined
Imean what Fehren
bacher
calls the "doctrine"
of racism?"a
of inherent
rationalized
theory
Negro
were
As noted
Lincoln
did not hold
that blacks
inferiority."
above,
inherently
to
inferior
whites
(Fehrenbacher,
p. 299).
45