Abe Lincoln, White Separatist

December 19, 2000

Lately I’ve read several books portraying Abraham Lincoln as an enemy of racism. I’ve also read one that portrays him as a champion of racial segregation and white supremacy, and this book has a distinct edge over the other books in that Lincoln wrote it himself. It was a collection of his speeches and letters.

Debating Stephen Douglas during their famous 1858 Senate race in Illinois, Lincoln flatly denied the charge that he favored racial equality. In his words:

I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races — 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 I believe will forever 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.

He underlined the point by adding: “I am not in favor of Negro citizenship.” Addressing the question whether individual states had the constitutional power to confer citizenship on the Negro, he said: “If the state of Illinois had that power I should be opposed to the exercise of it.”

Lincoln’s defenders prefer to believe he didn’t mean all this. They explain his words away as a politically necessary concession to the popular prejudices of his time. But this is unconvincing. Lincoln clearly meant just what he said. He spoke cogently and exceeded the requirements of mere pandering. He went out of his way to say more than was necessary. And he repeated it with great emphasis when he didn’t have to.

Lincoln wanted it clearly understood that opposing slavery was a far cry from espousing racial equality; that you could hold the African race to be inferior without thinking this justified violating its most basic human rights. But he didn’t think racial separation violated any rights; in fact, he saw it as the solution to racial tensions.

Later, as president, Lincoln showed the sincerity of his views not only by ordering the emancipation of slaves, but also by encouraging the colonization of blacks in Africa and Central America (which he preferred because it was much closer than Africa). If blacks were going to be freed, he believed, they would need a place to go. They couldn’t stay in America.

In August 1862 President Lincoln spoke to a group of black freedmen in Washington. He was extraordinarily direct:

You and we are different races. We have between us 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 very greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence.... It is better for us both, therefore, to be separated.

By the end of the Civil War, Lincoln seems to have realized that the colonization schemes he favored weren’t going to work. Freed blacks didn’t want to leave America, Central America wouldn’t welcome them, Africa was too remote, and the cost of deporting them, even voluntarily, would be huge.

The fact remains that Lincoln was convinced that racial separation was the ideal. It was no less ideal for being unrealizable for the time being.

Lincoln is hard for us to understand because he was a benevolent white separatist. Modern discourse equates white separatism with “hate,” not kindness. But Lincoln thought permanent separation would be best for both races; and failing that, he wanted whites to have superior status in a racially mixed America. In other words, separate but equal; and if not separate, the races couldn’t be equal.

That’s right: the author of the Gettysburg Address was a segregationist.

Joseph Sobran

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