About Lincoln (2)

As a student of the 19th Century, I am naturally into our 16th President and the Civil War. I have read many books on Lincoln and expect to read many more.

You can make the case that Lincoln was a white supremacist. Frederick Douglass said that Lincoln always thought of the white race first, and that blacks were only his step-children. Since we can't read Lincoln's mind, there is no way to prove the opposite.

Lincoln was certainly a conservative. He was not any kind of liberal in any way, shape, or form.

He was always anti-slavery, but never an abolitionist, and he was silent on slavery until 1854 when the Kansas-Nebraska bill revived his political fortunes. He spoke out against the expansion of slavery (he was Ok with leaving it alone in the states where it already existed) only when it became politically benefical to do so.

He was a Henry Clay Whig to the end and like Clay, he favored colonization of blacks. As late as December of 1862 he spoke publicly (for the last time) favoring colonization. Did he ever really give up on colonization as unpractical as it was? We will never know for sure. Lincoln's advocacy of colonization should not endear him to anyone in the 21st century.