UW-Madison students call for removal of Lincoln statue

[The Magistrate]

67. You Continue To Amuse, Sir

Mr. Lincoln was a man of his times who was ahead of his times.

His basic position on slavery was that every man had the right to the produce of his own labor, and no one had the right to take that from him. This was a quite radical position, as it accorded an equality of rights to both negro and white. In most instances, 'free states' banned slavery within their borders as a segregationist measure --- with slavery came negroes, so no slavery, no negroes. Concepts of justice or equality had little to do with it. Even most abolitionists held negroes to be inferior, the debate was whether they could be educated and made equivalent to whites or not if in a state of freedom. It takes an exceedingly fine-grained search to comb up white people anywhere in the nineteenth century who held negroes equal to whites in all capacities by nature.

A politician seeking votes has little choice but to pay attention to the sensibilities of the voting public, which in the nineteenth century was exclusively white men. A politician who opposed slavery could get nowhere without making clear the limits of his opposition. A politician who took the view Mr. Lincoln did of a fundamental equality of rights between the races where the produce of their labor was concerned, had to be particularly careful, for that was viewed at the time, and rightfully so, as a radical position which taken to its logical conclusion might lead to equality of rights in all matters of citizenship between negroes and whites. In fact this is exactly what Douglas accused Mr. Lincoln of advocating, with the equal right of a negro to the produce of his labor being but the thin end of a wedge that must inevitably lead to the whole litany of horrors that still haunt a number of white minds today, were it applied to the crack in national life slavery opened. Mr. Lincoln on the debate platform disavowed such intention, and in all necessary detail. It may perhaps be an inherent flaw of a democratic system, but so long as votes are necessary to attain office, politicians cannot get too far beyond what most people think and feel.

That Mr. Lincoln spoke sincerely in refuting Douglas' characterization of his intentions I have no doubt. I would expect nothing more of a self-educated white man born and raised on the near frontier, and know that in a great proportion of cases I would encounter sentiments a good deal more noxious. I am not interested in anachronistic application of modern mores to the past, and consider people who indulge in the practice quite foolish. The degree of equality Mr. Lincoln was prepared to accord negroes places him head and shoulders above the general run of his times, and that he was prepared to fight for this entitles him to respect. That he fought effectively and successfully for that makes him admirable. That he was murdered by a man who thought the end of negro enslavement the greatest crime of tyranny in all history is a national tragedy.