Lincoln - Part 105
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Part 105

219 would be reelected: Zarefsky, Lincoln, Douglas, and Slavery, p. 58.

220 the Republican cause: On Trumbull's role, see Mark M. Krug, "Lyman Trumbull and the Real Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates," JISHS 57 (Winter 1964): 380396.

220 debate, at Jonesboro: For an excellent account of this debate, which gives much insight into the social, economic, and political life of "Egypt," see John Y. Simon, "Union County in 1858 and the Lincoln-Douglas Debate," JISHS 62 (Autumn 1969): 267292.

220 Senate that year: Johannsen, Lincoln-Douglas Debates, pp. 122123.

220 "be created equal": Ibid., p. 128.

220 "my political friends": Ibid., p. 136.

220 "against unfriendly legislation": Ibid., pp. 146147. The Chicago Times gave what is probably a better version: "vigor enough in the tendency to force slavery into a territory without positive police regulations." Holzer, Lincoln-Douglas Debates, p. 170.

220 debate to begin: Sparks, Lincoln-Douglas Debates, pp. 314, 324. The best account is Charles H. Coleman, The Lincoln-Douglas Debate at Charleston, Illinois (Eastern Illinois University Bulletin, no. 220 [Oct. 1, 1957]).

221 "and political equality": Johannsen, Lincoln-Douglas Debates, p. 162.

221 American race problem: Two excellent a.n.a.lyses of Lincoln's racial views are George M. Fredrickson, "A Man but Not a Brother: Abraham Lincoln and Racial Equality," Journal of Southern History 41 (Feb. 1975): 3958, and Don E. Fehrenbacher, "Only His Stepchildren," in Lincoln in Text and Context, pp. 95112. The chapter on Lincoln in George Sinkler's The Racial Att.i.tudes of American Presidents: From Abraham Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., 1971) is also important. It would, I think, be a mistake to attempt to palliate Lincoln's racial views by saying that he grew up in a racist society or that his ideas were shared by many of his contemporaries. After all, there were numerous Americans of his generation-notably, many of the abolitionists-who were committed to racial equality. At the same time, it ought to be noted that Lincoln fortunately escaped the more virulent strains of racism. Unlike many of his fellow Republicans, he never spoke of African-Americans as hideous or physically inferior; he never declared that they were innately inferior mentally or incapable of intellectual development; he never described them as indolent or incapable of sustained work; he never discussed their supposed licentious nature or immorality. For an extensive sampling of statements by Republicans who did crudely express these views, see James D. Bilotta, Race and the Rise of the Republican Party, 18481865 (New York: Peter Lang, 1992), esp. chap. 6. Lincoln's own views on race, on the other hand, were nearly always expressed tentatively. As Fehrenbacher points out (p. 106), "He conceded that the Negro might not be his equal, or he said that the Negro was not his equal in certain respects." Even when he agreed that blacks did not have the same civil rights as whites, he nearly always added in the next breath that they were the equal of whites in the enjoyment of the natural rights pledged in the Declaration of Independence.

221 "beginning to end": Johannsen, Lincoln-Douglas Debates, p. 174.

221 "petty personal matters": Ibid., pp. 177, 181, 184.

222 the Republican candidate: See the spirited account in Tufve Nilsson Ha.s.selquist, "The Big Day: A Galesburg Swede Views the Lincoln-Douglas Debate," ed. and trans, by John E. Norton, Knox Alumnus (Winter 1990), pp. 1618. (Courtesy Prof. J. Harvey Young)

222 "their posterity forever": Johannsen, Lincoln-Douglas Debates, pp. 210, 212, 216.

222 "Declaration of Independence": Ibid., p. 219.

222 "'set him again'": Ibid., p. 228.

223 "the adjoining islands": Ibid., pp. 233234.

223 "a political wrong": Ibid., p. 254.

223 "right or wrong": Ibid., p. 256.

223 "the other counties": Ibid, p. 264.

223 "side of Heaven": Ibid., p. 267.

223 "to the law": Ibid, p. 268.

223 "crime of slavery": Ibid, p. 266.

223 "the whole earth": Ibid, p. 276.

223 "shall last forever": Ibid, p. 277.