Scholarship over Lincoln's views on race and slavery will continue forever. Here is one pro-Lincoln scholars opinion.
The issue of Lincoln's racial views were raised from the beginning. P. 1
The debate will never end because Lincoln's views can always be read in opposite ways. Some of his views sound racist. Some of his views sound anti-racist. P. 1
How can we ever ascertain his innermost feelings? P. 1
In all probability Lincoln had no racial bias. P. 2
His anti-slavery views were sincere. So were his colonization views. P. 3
Many Northern whites loathed slavery in order to protect white workers. Many free-soilers were white supremacists but many harbored no racial prejudice. P. 5
Some African Americans were in favor of colonization. P. 6
Lincoln spoke in favor of colonization in his eulogy of Henry Clay in 1852. Was this racist? P. 7
The Peoria speech in 1854 bears further study. P. 8
"If all earthly power were given to me I would not know what to do, as to the existing institution. P. 11
The author goes to great lengths to parse the Peoria speech to make the case that Lincoln was not a racist. The thing to me is simply his effort to do so. P. 13
"The Republican Party had been founded in reaction to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. It was a fusion party designed to unite the Free Soilers from each of the existing parties: the Democrats and the Whigs. The Whig party disintegrated after the Republican Party was founded, though the Democrats survived. P. 14
What is the place of the DOI in the founding of the United States? Did the equality statement apply to all or whites only? Lincoln place tremendous emphasis on the Declaration. P. 15
At what point in his presidency did Lincoln realize that the Union could not be reunited with slavery still intact? Did he intend to move against slavery from the beginning, or did he move only after he saw it was necessary to win the war?
The famous Springfield debate with Douglas and Lincoln's statement about marrying a black woman. P. 17
The Huck Finn theory: that Lincoln struggled throughout his life to overcome his innate racial prejudice. P. 18
Was Lincoln a tricky politician? The author seems to think so. P. 20
"I want to have a long talk with my friend Douglas." P. 60
"Exceptional people come along sometimes, and to know them----to know Lincoln---one must analyze the evidence in all its complexity and then use the force of intuition. And so the following the conjecture may be offered: Lincoln was free of any gut-level bias. There was no racial malice in his soul." P. 73
Conjecture yes.
The author doesn't define "racist." What was a racist in the middle of the 19th century?
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