Ap United States Thesis Paper

AP United States Thesis Paper Mack Ray Period One April 9th, 2009 Mr. Peling

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Table of Contents Introduction………Page 3 Background………Page 3-6 Historiography………Page 7-9 Thesis W/ Evidence……Page 9-17 1

Abraham Lincoln, 1861, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C., in National Archives and Records Administration,

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals_iv/images/emancipation_proclamation/html (accessed March 30, 2009).

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Bibliography………Page 18 “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 nations wounds.” 2 “Let there be no compromise on the question of extending slavery. If there be, all our labor is lost, are, ere long, must be done again…Have none of it. Stand firm. The tug has to come, and better now, than any time hereafter.” 3 Mack Ray Period One Due Date: April 9, 2009 Abraham Lincoln and His Race Relations Introduction: Back in the 1800’s, who would have thought that a back-country, ill-educated, and illiterate citizen of the United States could have become the sixteenth President of the United States? Abraham Lincoln took the country by storm and steered the country in the right direction after the Buchanan administration fell inactive to the events that preceded the Civil War. Just in one Presidential term, the country divided into two separate nations over the institution of slavery, a Civil War caused mass bloodshed throughout the country, and Abraham Lincoln was given the task to mend the fences and bring all the parties to the table to settle the differences. In keeping the 2

Library of Congress, The Abraham Lincoln Papers, April 10, 1865. Second Inaugural Address (Washington DC) 3

Letter to Illinois Senator Lyman Trumbull regarding slavery as quoted in: Paul Kendrick and Stephen Kendrick, Douglass and Lincoln (New York: Walker and Company, 2008), Page 55.

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Union together, Lincoln had to answer the question of slavery. Should slavery be allowed in the United States? If so, where? Should blacks have the same rights (both economically and politically) then whites? Through letters, diaries, and mandated laws that Lincoln passed during his Presidential term, this paper will trace the race relations of Lincoln during his lifetime and whether Lincoln should be considered a racist as some believe he should be. Background: Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 to Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks. Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were two uneducated farmers who looked to provide a successful and safe household for their family. As a child, he was very shy and had little education (consisted of about 18 months of schooling). When he was 22, he broke away from his family to create his own identity and attain his lifelong goals. Abraham Lincoln fit the norm of a typical back-country white male; He witnessed racism and the institution of slavery on an every day basis. He had his first real experience with slavery on a trip to Louisville, Kentucky. There, Lincoln visited a friend on his hemp farm where he witnessed the injustices and cruelties of slavery and the hatred of racism. While on the way home from his voyage to Louisville, Abraham Lincoln observed the slave trade that was taking place in the middle section of the United States using barges. On board the barge, Lincoln witnessed twelve slaves being transported from Kentucky to a farm down in the southern region of the United States. According to Lincoln’s famous journals, “…they were chained six and six together. A small iron clevis was around the left wrist of each, and this fastened to the main chain by a shorter one at a convenient distance from the others: so that the negroes were strung together 4

precisely like so many fish upon a trot-line…In this condition they were being separated forever from the scenes of their childhood, their friends, their fathers and mothers, and brothers and sisters, and many of them, from their wives and children, and going into perpetual slavery where the lash of the master is proverbially more ruthless and unrelenting then any other.”4 This experience is where Lincoln created his strong conviction to cease the peculiar institution of slavery and mend the divisions created in America. His political career began at the age of 23 in 1832. As a young boy, he yearned to be apart of American politics and take part in something he thought of as nationalistic. In 1832, he led an unsuccessful campaign for the Illinois General Assembly affiliated with the Whig Party. After participating in the Black Hawk War (where he did not see combat), he moved to Springfield, Illinois where he found a passion for practicing law. He was admitted into the bar in 1837 and began working for John T. Stuart, a prominent lawyer out of Illinois. Simultaneously, Lincoln served four terms in the Illinois House of Representatives and became a commanding leader of the Whig Party in Illinois. With those four consecutive terms in the state legislature behind him, Lincoln desired to move onto bigger and better things. He was elected in 1847 to the US House of Representatives and used the opportunity to speak out against the Mexican-American War. He also used his position to learn from his political idol, Henry Clay. In this stage of Lincoln’s career, the one monumental event that shone the spotlight on him brighter than ever was a speech he made to a roaring crowd in Illinois. The topic was the Kansas-Nebraska Act and Lincoln was arguing about the ramifications of slavery and how it was affecting the citizens of the United 4

Journal Entry of Abraham Lincoln as quoted in: Thomas Mackey, “That All Mankind Should Be Free: Lincoln and African American,” OAH Magazine of History, October 2007, Page 24.

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States. This speech gave Lincoln much needed attention that eventually led to his election as the 16th President of the United States of America. From 1861 through 1865, Abraham Lincoln held the highest office of the land and served it proudly. During a time of utter chaos, he was able to steer the country into the right direction of independence and ultimate happiness. The major issue that Lincoln could not hide from in his Presidential administration was slavery and the threat of the secession of the southern half of the country. Right when he stepped through the front door of the White House on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Abraham Lincoln was pressured by abolitionists and radical Republicans to emancipate the slaves and end the “peculiar institution” that seemed to be dividing the country into two. Starting in mid 1962, Lincoln began writing rough drafts of his Emancipation Proclamation that would serve to free the slaves that were located in the rebelling states (The Confederate States of America). To the relief of many powerless black slaves, Abraham Lincoln finished his final draft of his Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. “That on the first day of January…all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.”5

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Abraham Lincoln, "Emancipation Proclamation," January 1, 1863, The Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress American Memory Project, Washington, D.C., in Library of Congress American Memory Project, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ ammem/alhtml/almss/ep001.jpg (accessed March 28, 2009).

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Historians have long debated the relationship between racism and Abraham Lincoln. Throughout his political career, he has made numerous contradictory statements discussing race and position blacks should hold in American society. “What I would desire most is the separation of the white and black races…”6 “Certainly, the Negro is not our equal in color – perhaps not in many other respects; still, in the right to put into his mouth the bread that his own hands have earned, he is the equal of any other man, white or black.”7 There are those historians that believe that the sixteenth President of the United States was an honorable man who fought for the black slaves and did not have an ounce of racism in his bones. And there are others that believe that Lincoln served the white majority and believed that the white race was “superior.”

Historiography: Not many historians can argue that Abraham Lincoln was not a successful President who focused on keeping the Union together at all costs. He worked to build a strong government run by the people and for the people. However, some historians argue that the sixteenth President of the United States believed that the white race was to be superior and that blacks and whites should never be equal. These viewpoints can clearly be seen in the writings of the historian, Lerone Bennett Jr., in his most famous article in Ebony Magazine titled Was Abraham Lincoln a White Supremacist? 6

Abraham Lincoln Speech during the Lincoln-Douglass Debates as quoted in: Henry Gates, Lincoln on Race and Slavery (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2009), Page XVII 7

Speech in Springfield, Illinois in 1958 as quoted in: IBID; Page XVII

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“He [Abraham Lincoln] believed until his death that black people and white people would be much better off separated – preferably by the Atlantic Ocean or some other large and deep body of water that would separate them…Over the years, the Mythology of the Great Emancipator has become a part of the mental landscape of America. Generations of schoolchildren have memorized its cadences. Poets, politicians, and long-suffering blacks have wept over its imagery and drama. No other American story is so enduring. No other American story is so comforting. No American story is so false. Abraham Lincoln was not the Great Emancipator.”8 According to the great historian George M. Fredrickson in Big Enough to Be Inconsistent, “…the prewar Lincoln was clearly a white supremacist. Although political necessity forced him to endorse those practices [racism] publicly, Lincoln’s personal attitudes, to the extent that we can determine them, were much closer to racism…”9 These excerpts show how the historians, Lerone Bennett Jr. and George M. Fredrickson looked behind the great myths of Abraham Lincoln and his political career to show how his only main goal was to keep the union together and please his white constituents. Abraham Lincoln, one of the most popular and triumphant United States Presidents, has been studied meticulously for over 200 years. Even to this day, many historians are divided in how Lincoln perceived the African American race as a whole and whether he believed that the blacks deserved to be equal socially and politically. Today, many historians will argue that Abraham Lincoln was the “Great Emancipator” and an antislavery advocate that fought with all of his might to free the slaves and create equality between the white and black race. This historical opinion 8

Lerone Bennett, “Was Abraham Lincoln A White Supremacist,” Ebony Magazine, February 1968, Page 35-36. 9

George Fredrickson, Big Enough To Be Inconsistent, (Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2008), Page 84.

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can be seen in the writings of the grand historian James Oakes. James Oakes is an American History professor at the University of Berkley and specifically studies the effects of slavery on the black race. “Lincoln believed that race relations were regulated at three different levels. At the highest level, the natural rights promised in the Declaration of Independence and guaranteed by the Constitution, Lincoln consistently favored the equality of blacks and whites. [He believed that] Slavery was wrong because it deprived men and women of the natural rights to which everyone was equally entitled…He repeatedly described slavery as a moral, social, and political evil; [Lincoln believed] freedom was the natural right of every human being.”10 Harold Holzer (a historian who focuses on slavery and the “new history” in regards to the Emancipation Proclamation) disagrees with many historians who believe that Abraham Lincoln was a racist who did nothing to protect the blacks from inequality. “Lincoln’s proclamation was a moral landmark. It also was a political stroke of genius that began the long-overdue process of crushing slavery…Many times in the months to come, advisors urged Lincoln to cancel his proclamation, but he steadfastly refused. Lincoln knew that his order had only begun the work of ending slavery…Unfortunately; Lincoln’s commitment to the destruction of slavery has come into question. In reality, Lincoln truly deserved the title that a grateful America bestowed on him in 1863: Great Emancipator.”11 These excerpts taken from the work of historians display the many opinions that dub Abraham Lincoln as the “Great Emancipator” that refused to back down in his fight to free the slaves of America. Thesis with Evidence:

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James Oakes, "Natural Rights, Citizenship Rights, State Rights, and Black Rights: Another Look at Lincoln and Race," History Now, no. 18 (December 2008), under "A Historians Perspective," http://www.historynow.org/12_2008/ historian3.html (accessed March 15, 2009). 11 Harold Holzer, "The Great Emancipator," Cobblestone, January 1995, " http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/ delivery?vid=5&hid=105&sid (accessed March 14, 2009).

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From 1861 through 1865, the country had a commanding leader who guided the country in the right direction and kept the Union together at all cost. During a time in American history where the country was divided into two regions, Lincoln was able to abolish slavery with the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment, elect a powerful Cabinet (filled with many of his enemies), and create a government for the people and by the people. For centuries, many historians have debated on Abraham Lincoln and whether he really was the “Great Emancipator” who freed the slaves with the tip of his pen. According to the research gathered, Lincoln was not overly racist because he showed at a young age his hatred of the “peculiar institution”, he pushed for the passing of both the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment, and he was the first President to invite an African American to the White House for an official event. By looking at Lincoln’s Presidential term as a whole, this paper will investigate the policies passed by Lincoln and the many letters and diaries he kept that will show his valiance in the fight against the institution of slavery and the racism that had become an epidemic throughout the country. “I can only now say, as I have often before said, it has always been a sentiment with me that all mankind should be free.”12 Growing up in Kentucky, Lincoln witnessed the many injustices of slavery. His parents both belonged to a faction of the Baptist church that condemned the institution as a whole. Many historians believe this is where Lincoln received his strong convictions against slavery and the discrimination against the blacks. Along with his religious convictions, Lincoln experienced a life changing and gratifying

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Abraham Lincoln addressing a delegation of five free blacks in the White House as quoted in: Thomas Mackey; Page 24

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event in the state of Kentucky. In the early 1930’s, Lincoln took a holiday and traveled to Louisville, Kentucky to visit with his friend Joshua Speed. While in Louisville, he visited a friend who owned a hemp farm where many slaves were used to do the menial work. On the way back from Louisville, Lincoln witnessed firsthand the slave trade that was occurring in the Midwestern region of the United States. According to a letter he wrote to the half-sister of Joshua Speed, “I witnessed twelve blacks who had been purchased in Kentucky and were being moved to a farm in the South. They were chained six and six together. A small iron clevis was around the left wrist of each and this fastened to the main chain by a shorter one at a convenient distance from the others…Slavery had the power of making me miserable.”13 These excerpts show how the determined Lincoln found a spark that lit his fight to end the institution indefinitely and enact free labor policies. Entering the big White House took Lincoln by surprise. He had no idea what kind of power he held and how much pressure he would be under in keeping the country together and solving the problem of the “peculiar institution.” Abraham Lincoln’s main goal was to please every region of the US and to do that would almost be impossible. The majority of the North called for an end to slavery and equality for all blacks when the South called for the continuation of slavery. Growing up in a Baptist church (that did not support the institution); Lincoln was trapped between his own beliefs and the beliefs of the American citizens of the North and South. Taking affirmative action, Lincoln began writing a Proclamation that would demand the freeing of slaves in rebellion states. According to the Library of Congress, Lincoln

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Journal Entry written by Abraham Lincoln as quoted in: Thomas Mackey; Page 24

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first read his first draft of the Proclamation to Secretaries William Seward and Gideon Welles on July 13, 1862. After Lincoln finished, both men were speechless and did not know how to respond. Both men worried that this would cause mass chaos in the South and that foreign intervention was imminent. Despite their concerns, Lincoln pressed on to write a second, third, and final draft of the Emancipation Proclamation. Finally on January 1st, 1863, Lincoln signed the final copy of the Proclamation. This effectively freed the slaves in the South and created the Great Migration of blacks to the northern industrial cities. “Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States…by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of Sates, are, and henceforward shall be free…” This Proclamation shows the commitment of Abraham Lincoln to fight for the freeing of slaves and the ending of the institution that took its home in the southern region of the United States. “When you are dead and in Heaven, in a thousand years that action of yours will make the Angels sing your praises.” 14 This selection comes from a letter written by Hannah Johnson (mother of a Northern black soldier). She wrote to President Lincoln to express her praises of the good things that have come about as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation. Although the Emancipation Proclamation only ended slavery in “slave states” (not border states), it stirred up the country and put a new drive in the Union military war plan. According to the National Archives 14

Hannah Johnson to Abraham Lincoln, July 31, 1863, in The Emancipation Proclamation (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration), , in National Archives and Records Administration, http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals_iv/sections/ text_emancipation.html (accessed March 9, 2009).

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and Records Administration (NARA), almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors fought for the Union and freedom due to the Proclamation. After the passing of the historic Emancipation Proclamation, criticism soon followed. Many, including Abraham Lincoln, began to worry that the Proclamation would be seen as a temporary mandated law. Many people believed that the Proclamation was just used to increase the manpower of the Union Army with the slaves of the South. So, beginning in the mid 1860’s, Abraham Lincoln began pushing for an amendment to the Constitution that would officially bring an end to an institution that he long fought to end. “Dear Sir…The importance of the vote to be taken in the House Monday, January 9th, on the Constitutional Amendment [13], cannot be overestimated. I need not press upon you the necessity of your presence in the city on Saturday, the 7th inst…You must help us one vote Don’t you know of a sinner in the opposition who is on praying ground?” 15 This excerpt from a letter is written by James M. Ashley, a former newspaper editor turned politician in Ohio. Ashley was a strong proponent of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In the first days of January 1865, Lincoln met with the opposition of the Amendment and swayed them to support the Amendment. This letter shows the important role that Lincoln played in passing the Amendment through the House and Congress and his non-racial political actions. Before the ratification of the Amendment, slavery was only legal in a few locations in the United States (Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri). According to the Library of Congress, the Amendment freed 40,000 slaves. 15

J M Ashley to Abraham Lincoln, December 23, 1864, in The Abraham Lincoln Papers (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress American Memory Project), , in Library of Congress American Memory Project, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/mss/mal/ mal2/431/4318500/001.jpg (accessed March 8, 2009).

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Frederick Douglass, the Martin Luther King Jr. of his era, was a former slave in the state of Maryland who was successful from escaping from his slave master “Mr. Freeman.” He traveled to the Northeast were he began to work in the abolitionist movement. He traveled to Europe soon after to lecture about the struggles the black race was enduring in the United States. Returning from Europe, Frederick Douglass felt like a revived man, ready to take on the peculiar institution that brought down his race. He started the North Star, an abolitionist news paper that was printed regularly with the motto, “Right is of no Sex — Truth is of no Color — God is the Father of us all, and we are all brethren.” 16 With the upcoming election of 1860, Douglass became an early critic of Abraham Lincoln. “Some thought we had in Mr. Lincoln the nerve and decision of an Oliver Cromwell; but the result shows that we merely have a continuation of the Pierces and Buchanans, and that the Republican President bends the knee to slavery as readily as any of his infamous predecessors.”17 As Lincoln’s Presidential term wore on, Douglass quickly became an admirer of the tall and commanding President. Douglass supported the Emancipation Proclamation however; he believed it stopped short of freeing all of the slaves in the country. On August 19, 1864, Frederick Douglass was personally asked by Lincoln to visit the White House and discuss current issues. This barrier-breaking meeting between these two men really showed the commitment that Lincoln had to bring the two races together and end slavery. After leaving his second meeting with Lincoln, he found that Lincoln had “…deeper moral conviction against slavery than I had ever seen before in anything spoken or written by him.” 18 16

Paul Kendrick and Stephen Kendrick; Page 171. IBID; Page 75. 18 IBID; Page 203. 17

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“They [Lincoln and Douglass] met not as friends but as men able to talk. This relationship, exactly in its twists and even its frustrations, out not be left behind, but remembered…The greatness of Lincoln is that he did, through patience, skill, and unwavering firmness, accomplish his mission…He saved the nation, and freed nearly four million people as a necessary condition in doing so.” 19 Although I whole-heartedly believe that Abraham Lincoln was not a racist, many of his speeches and diary entries say otherwise. The views that Lincoln held during his lifetime were very contradicting and usually depended on the region he was talking to or writing in. If Lincoln was giving a speech in a northern state, his speech would usually reference equality for all (including blacks). However, Lincoln would never mention those words in the southern half of the United States. He knew that if he went against the southern Democrats, he would loose the next election for sure. Coincidentally, Lincoln did not live to run for a second election due to his assassination in Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. “What I would most desire would be the separation of the white and black races.”20 This passage shows one of Lincoln’s plans to deal with the black race and whether to assimilate them or send them to a different country. Lincoln had a very difficult time in choosing a plan because he wanted to please both the north and south as not to loose any of the votes for the second election. “Why should the people of your race be colonized and where? Why should they leave this country? This is, perhaps, the first question for consideration. You and we are different races. We have between as 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 suffer greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. In a word, we suffer on each side. If this be 19 20

IBID; Page 247. Henry Gates; Page XVII.

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admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated. It is better for both, therefore, to be separated.”21 This passage comes from a speech that was spoken by Lincoln to a group of black community leaders on August 14th, 1862. It shows how Lincoln questioned himself often in how to deal with the issue of slavery and racism overspreading the country. This excerpt also shows how Lincoln would go to great lengths to keep the Union together by forcibly deporting the black population to a different country. “I will say, then, that I am NOT nor have I ever been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the black and white race – that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters 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 will ever FORBID the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. 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." 22 This selection was from the fourth debate between Abraham Lincoln and the famous Frederick Douglass. The Lincoln-Douglass Debates began in 1858 between the Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln, and the Democratic candidate, Frederick Douglass. The debates were held around the state of Illinois and took place a record number seven times. Both candidates were vying for a seat in the United States Senate. The debates served as a sample of what Abraham Lincoln would be facing in the White House during the 1860’s. The main topic discussed was slavery. Abraham

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Excerpt comes from speech given by Lincoln to group of black community leaders as quoted in: Roy Basler, The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln: 1861-1862, (New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1955), Page 371. 22

Excerpt taken from speech given in fourth Lincoln-Douglas Debate in Illinois as quoted in: Roy Basler; Page 371.

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Lincoln gave his most candid opinions to the peculiar institution and the black race. This is one of the most explicit quotations when it comes to Abraham Lincoln’s contradictory views on race and slavery. For decades, scholarly historians have never agreed upon the race relations of Abraham Lincoln. Passed down from generation to generation, Abraham Lincoln’s stories and myths have given him the name of “The Great Emancipator” however; many people still question his beliefs. Throughout his lifetime, Lincoln made many contradictory statements regarding the institution of slavery and the black race. In researching and evaluating many of his statements from previous diary entries, letters, and speeches, Abraham Lincoln is certainly not a racist. While in the oval office, he fought the majority of his cabinet in passing the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment which effectively freed all the slaves of the United States and bring an end to the institution that had started a Civil War on American soil. A letter from Lincoln to Albert G. Hodges (famous newspaper editor) truly gives his stance on slavery and his dedication to fight the institution until death. “I am naturally antislavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think and feel.” 23

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Abraham Lincoln to Albert G Hodges, April 4, 1864, in The Abraham Lincoln Papers (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress American Memory Project), , in Library of Congress American Memory Project, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ alhtml/almss/ln001.html (accessed April 1, 2009).

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Bibliography Basler, Roy. Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln: 1861-1862. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1955. Bennett, Lerone. “Was Abraham Lincoln A White Supremacist?” Ebony Magazine, February 1968. Fredrickson, George. Big Enough To Be Inconsistent. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2008. Gates, Henry. Lincoln and Douglass. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2009. Holzer, Harold. “The Great Emancipator.” Cobblestone, January 1995. http://web.ebscohost.com/‌ehost/‌delivery?vid=5&hid=105&sid (accessed March 14, 2009). Kendrick, Paul, and Stephen Kendrick. Lincoln and Douglass. New York City: Walker and Company, 2008. Library of Congress American Memory Project. http://www.loc.gov/‌index.html 18

Mackey, Thomas C. “That All Mankind Should Be Free: Lincoln and African Americans.” OAH Magazine of History (October-November 2007): 24. http://www.iconn.org (accessed March 31, 2009). National Archives and Records Administration. http://www.archives.org Oakes, James. “Natural Rights, Citizenship Rights, State Rights, and Black Rights: Another Look at Lincoln and Race.” History Now, no. 18 (December 2008). http://www.historynow.org/‌12_2008/‌historian3.html (accessed March 15, 2009).

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