kitty, thanks for publishing this.

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." Lincoln's First Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1861.

Minimum wage is today's slavery

Lincoln was an exemplary politician in many ways, but let's put the "all men created equal" myth to bed.

Lincoln was a man of his time, a canny astute politician, but no saint of racial equality. He supported the Illinois Constitution, which prohibited the emigration of all black Americans into his state, and he also supported the Illinois Black Codes, Jim Crow laws which deprived the few free blacks in Illinois any semblance of real citizenship. He strongly supported the Fugitive Slave Act, which compelled free states to catch runaway slaves and return them to their owners.

In his First Inaugural Lincoln pledged his support of a constitutional amendment to prohibit the federal government from ever abolishing slavery. Lincoln wrote to Horace Greeley on Aug. 22, 1862: "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and it is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it"

"I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races," Lincoln announced on Aug. 21, 1858, in a debate with Stephen Douglas. "I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position."

"Free them [slaves] and make them politically and socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this. We cannot, then, make them equals." In Springfield, Ill., on July 17, 1858, Lincoln confirmed, "What I would most desire would be the separation of the white and black races."

On Sept. 18, 1858, in Charleston, Ill., Lincoln vowed, "I will, to the very last, stand by the law of this state which forbids the marrying of white people with Negroes."

The Emancipation Proclamation was issued as an ultimatum to the south. Lincoln felt the Union forces had the advantage when he told the Confederacy either rejoin the Union or lose millions in private property (slaves) without any compensation; all slaves would be permanently freed in Confederate states that had not submitted to federal control by January, 1863. When the Civil War began, there were more slaves living in the Union than out of it, and Lincoln had no plans to free any of them.

The Emancipation Proclamation also encouraged freed slaves to join the United States military. Nearly 200,000 blacks, most of them ex-slaves, did just that, thereby giving the North the additional manpower to win the war. Slaves had been part of the "engine of war" for the Confederacy. They produced and prepared food; sewed uniforms; repaired railways; worked on farms and in factories, shipping yards, and mines; built fortifications; and served as hospital workers and common laborers. So Lincoln simply confiscated them.

Lincoln was a lifelong advocate of "colonization," or shipping all free black Americans off to Africa, or to Central America, or Haiti, or Cuba, or anywhere but here. "I cannot make it better known than it already is," he revealed in a Dec. 1, 1862 message to Congress, "that I strongly favor colonization." To Lincoln, blacks could be equal, but not with white men, and not in the United States.

Abraham Lincoln did not favor the abolition of slavery before the war, and all his life held the views typical of his time on race issues. But he was a man of deep convictions and an open mind, and during the Civil War displayed a remarkable capacity for moral and political growth.

My favorite quote:

"With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds. "

A. Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Address

Second favorite:

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

Sincerely,

Robert Capp

Chuxxr - thanks, interesting how relevant some of these words are today, isn't it? I felt it was only fair to publish his ACTUAL words, rather than someone else's, no offense to R_T, who can post however he sees fit.

Skeptic - all true. I included the quote "all men are created equal" knowing that he did not mean racial equality, which would have certainly have been some extreme forward thinking for the time. This quote I feel sums it up "I have never said anything to the contrary, but I hold that notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas he is not my equal in many respects---certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowment. But in the right to eat the bread, without leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man." Thank you for keeping the information accurate in that regard.

bcapp - yes, great quotes! :)

Lincoln, is the great American hero. Wise and compassionate, but strong enough, by the force of his will, to save the moral and political foundations of this great nation. He had his flaws, as Skeptic notes, but he outgrew the conventional prejudice of the time. When I visited the Lincoln Memorial a few years ago, this crusty old cynic got a tear in his eye. The same thing happened a few years later when I read the last page of Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, which is the best of the many Lincoln biographies. He truly does belong to the ages.

ChuxxR: What was the minimum wage when Lincoln was president?

I suspect you misread his words. His point is that labor begets capital. This is true. If you work for something, you earn it. If someone is not willing to pay you for your labor, you find someone else who will.

Lincoln had no concept of a minimum wage, or worse yet, a government enforcement of such an idea.

Gulliver, thank you for a very good post. As Society changes we cannot adapt our new mores to events of over 100 years ago, if that were the case there would not be any great men of women on our past, there would always be something to criticize or tear apart.

Skeptic, according to CNN, his wife was also crazy and there is a very good possibility that he was a homosexual. Can anyone come up with some more dirt?

loomis, there's always that nasty, suspending habeas corpus problem and the fact that he continued the Civil War without any talk of negotiations with those Southern insurrectionists, which resulted in the greatest loss of American life in the history of this country (approximately 620,000 died, and another 400,000 wounded).

This aside, he truly was a revolutionary thinker, and a man before his time. I would love to see how many of you (including kittyv would have embraced his ideology at the time).

keepingupdated, thanks for the reminder, I forgot he jailed his detractors. Yes, I would have embraced his ideology, then and now. Thanks again.

To be honest, I would have been torn on supporting Lincoln at the time of his presidency.

Our founders had a concept that the states were the actual governing authority, and that the national government was to be the glue that held them together.

Lincoln changed that. He drove for the federalization of the nation, which made it more effective at holding the states together, but it has also grown into the monstrosity that it has become as a result.

The idea that abortion would be mandated upon the states by a central government was beyond comprehension at that time.

The idea that the feds would increase taxation to the levels it has, then refuse to return those monies to the citizens it robbed unless the states implemented its mandates..that was also a foreign concept.

The idea that the federal government would be a source of capital to the economy using borrowed/printed dollars..that was also alien.

The idea that the clause of the 14th that gave children of slaves citizenship would be extended to allow a Mexican citizen to drive across the border illegally to receive a free hospital stay and her child would become an automatic citizen..this was also beyond conception.

Lincolns work has been such a success , let's look at the present. We have Oprah, Condy Rice, Colin Powell and of Course, The Messiah as President of these great United States. What better way to honor the 200th birthday of President Lincoln, then to ABOLISH AFFIRMATIVE ACTION? Now THAT would do President Lincoln proud!!

loomisresident

What difference does it make of his spouse was crazy or he was bi? Neither had anything to do with his administration as Chief Executive. Lincoln was a great president and a very progressive thinker for his time.

My point was that as the legend grows larger, it overshadows the man behind it.

Ummmm.. btw Lommisresident: Nothing wrong with queers (if in fact Pres. Lincoln was one) Just look at the great Barney Frank and how the liberal sickos uphold him.

I must agree with LLL. When our government comes out and says that this giveaway is not designed to create any help for the "white male American worker". NOW THAT IS DISCRIMINATION TIMES TEN. How can a black man be so hypocritical as to put restrictions on help according to race and sex. I have to say, that it is time to end affirmative action and we need to do it now. Put THAT in the porkulus package that they are kicking around, and I might get behind that part of legislation