During one of his famed senatorial debates with Stephen Douglas in 1858, Lincoln said:
“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.”
Aug. 14, 1862, Lincoln invited free Black ministers to the White House to have a conversation. Lincoln did not hesitate to convince them of their inferiority when he candidly said the following:
“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 suffers very greatly, many of them, by living among us, while ours suffers from your presence. In a word, we suffer on each side. If this is admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated.”
Note that is four months after ending slavery in Washing DC the only three Northern territories with slavery that ended it during the Civil War. In DC unlike in the CSA, slave holders were compensated $300 per slave (that had not already been conscripted into Lincoln’s armies) and fitting with what Lincoln said, blacks were offered $100 if they would leave the USA.
Maryland ended slavery in 1864. Missouri ended the practice Jan 1865 West Virginia in Feb 1865 2 months before Lee surrendered, April 1865. Stand Watie and the Native American confederates did not surrender until June 1865. All confederate states ended slavery by June 1865 and Union states, Kentucky, New Jersey and Delaware waited until Dec. 6th 1865 where the 13th amendment forced them to do so. Although black slaver were free, the Coolie trade continued in California and natives were still enslaved (and murdered) as well. Many freeman in the North were simply incarcerated for the smallest infractions and or just accusations. Many Northern states created requirements for black suffrage that were nearly impossible to meet although this isn’t referred to as Jim Crow Laws, but they had the exact same results.
In his 1858 debate with Sen. Steven Douglas, Lincoln maintained
“There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all white people to the idea of indiscriminate amalgamation of the white and black races … A separation of the races is the only perfect preventive of amalgamation, but as an immediate separation is impossible, the next best thing is to keep them apart where they are not already together. If white and black people never get together in Kansas, they will never mix blood in Kansas…”
“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.”
“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.”
“I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.”
“I have never had the least apprehension that I or my friends would marry negroes if there was no law to keep them from it, but as Judge Douglas and his friends seem to be in great apprehension that they might, if there were no law to keep them from it, I give him the most solemn pledge that I will to the very last stand by the law of this State, which forbids the marrying of white people with negroes.”
“Our republican system was meant for a homogeneous people. As long as blacks continue to live with the whites they constitute a threat to the national life. Family life may also collapse and the increase of mixed breed bastards may some day challenge the supremacy of the white man.”
