Abraham Lincoln, White Supremacist, Part 2: The Fourth Lincoln-Douglas Debate

Abraham Lincoln

On September 18, 1858 during the fourth Lincoln-Douglas debate in Charleston, Illinois, future president Abraham Lincoln declared:

“I as much as any other man, am in favor of the superior position being assigned to the white man.”

Yes, Lincoln favored white supremacy, that is, he stated both that White people should be in charge, and that White people were superior in nature to Black people.

Yesterday, browsing on social media, I stirred up a bit of dissension when I commented that Abraham Lincoln, our greatest president, was a white supremacist. I would think that anyone familiar with the United States history would have known that. Lincoln certainly disliked slavery; however, as he rose to political prominence, he equally opposed racial equality. His seven debates against Stephen Douglas during their 1858 campaign for Illinois senator made him the leading moderately anti-slavery candidate. So, today, let us look carefully at the fourth Lincoln-Douglas debate to clarify Lincoln’s opinion about racial equality.

Earlier Post: Abraham Lincoln, White Supremacist: The First Lincoln-Douglas Debate

Lincoln was a creature of his time. His views were politic, and he could never have been elected president in 1860 if he openly favored abolition. The abolition of slavery was, at that time, considered to be a radical policy. Those are important matters, but they do not refute the simple reality that Lincoln favored white supremacy as a matter of public policy, and I don’t understand

Lincoln Memorial

why that causes so much controversy. Nor is the issue outdated. Consider that members of Lincoln’s party, the Republican Party, sometimes today advocate some version of white supremacy themselves. Nor do we, citizens of the United States, do ourselves any favor if we whitewash our past, or if we elevate Abraham Lincoln, our greatest president, into some kind of pristine demigod, remembered only as a larger-than-life statue of a marble man on a pedestal. 

With that said, I hold, as a modern white son of the South, that chattel slavery and all of the other cruel forms of forced labor are and always have been wicked, and that white supremacy is a foul philosophy. Readers who think otherwise will have little interest in the rest of this post. 


Lincoln Opposed Racial Equality

During their 1858 campaign, Douglas positioned himself as the pro-slavery candidate, while Lincoln held that slavery was evil and should not spread to any of the new states that were gradually being admitted to the Union. Lincoln carefully promised not to interfere with slavery where it already existed. This was, overall, considered a liberal position. 

For example, during this fourth debate, Lincoln specifically said that the White and Black races should not be equal, and that he certainly did not intend for Black people to have the right to vote. It was also his policy to keep juries all-white, to keep Black people out of public office, and to outlaw racially mixed marriages. He stated these points at the long debate’s outset:

“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, [applause]-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.”

Interesting, is it not, that the reporters noted that Lincoln’s brazenly racist comment received the audience’s applause? Yes, the assembled crowd evidently enjoyed Lincoln’s white supremacist opinions. Indeed, one wonders whether they were relieved to hear that Lincoln, although a liberal, nevertheless supported white supremacy. Evidently, even in a free state like Illinois, only a white supremacist could hope to win an election.

Lest we think that Lincoln’s views should be relegated to the 19th Century, let us remember that not until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, both adopted only in my own lifetime, 100 years after the Civil War, did the United States government take a firm stand against white supremacy and racial subjugation. What explanations, however, made Lincoln feel that white supremacy was acceptable?


Lincoln Stated that Black People Were Inferior

And, indeed, white supremacy obviously required some kind of moral justification. The standard explanation that White racists gave in the 1800s was that, according to White racists, Black people were simply not as good as White people. Lincoln baldly endorsed that view in this debate. In fact, Lincoln continued that the supposed inferiority of Black people required that Black people remain in a subordinate position:

“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.” [italics added]

So, was Lincoln a white supremacist? That statement removed all uncertainty.  

Earlier Post: Rev. Henry J. van Dyke, Sr. and the pro-Slavery Rhetoric of the Christian Right, Civil War Style


Lincoln Was a Sympathetic White Supremacist

Nevertheless, Lincoln did advocate some level of civil rights for African Americans. That, no doubt, must have shocked some of his audience. First, he did say that African Americans should have a degree of liberty:

“I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied every thing.”

Then, much to his audience’s delight, he immediately turned that noble assurance into a tasteless joke. Maybe he wanted to soften the shock. His joke, in turn, helped him to restate that he opposed racial equality:

“I do not understand that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. [Cheers and laughter.] My understanding is that I can just let her alone. I am now in my fiftieth year, and I certainly never have had a black woman for either a slave or a wife. So it seems to me quite possible for us to get along without making either slaves or wives of negroes. I will add to this that I have never seen, to my knowledge, a man, woman or child who was in favor of producing a perfect equality, social and political, between negroes and white men.”

So, there we go. Abraham Lincoln, a sympathetic, jovial, good-hearted racial supremacist.


Conclusion

In no way do I demean Lincoln’s dramatic accomplishments as president. Although he lost the 1858 senatorial election, he was elected to be President of the United States in 1860, taking office in March 1861. He preserved our union, assets and faults and all. He led the nation through the Civil War’s horrors, signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and was eventually martyred for his anti-slavery views. His legacy endures in his speeches: his pre-Civil War speeches were models of careful reasoning and audience adaptation, while some of the speeches that he gave during the Civil War are inspiring landmarks of American thought and eloquence.

Earlier Post: Abraham Lincoln and the Definition of “Liberty:” A Lesson for Our Time

Earlier Post: A White Supremacist Spoke from the Steps of the Lincoln Memorial

Also, let’s not forget that, when we call Lincoln a creature of his times, we inevitably ignore the fact that political public opinion in the United States of America was, at that time, only the public opinion of White people. Slaves struggling under the cruel lash obviously had no vote and little public voice. Even in the north, many free states still denied African Americans the right to vote. Lincoln adapted to his audience by expressing racist views. That does not mean that the entire nation was racist. It means that many people who had power were racists. Furthermore, the fact that Lincoln was elected to the presidency in 1860 shows, obviously enough, that anti-slavery sentiment was spreading in large parts of the country.

So, when we ask whether it is fair to judge Lincoln by 21st Century standards, let us remember that a great many people in 1858 already knew that slavery and racial oppression were wicked.

If circumstances allow, I hope to write more about Lincoln’s speeches, as he is justly admired as the United States’ greatest orator. We can and should admire the man; we must, however, equally remember the horrors that swirled around him.

Nor should we underestimate those horrors. The Civil War started three short years after the Lincoln-Douglas debates. That brutal conflict took almost as many American lives as the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean conflict, the Vietnam War, and the war against terror added together. If slavery was the United States’ original sin, the penance was terrible. Nor is the penance complete. Its reverberations continue to echo through our society today. We gamble on a losing hand when we forget the past.

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P.S. I’m sure we all noticed that Lincoln favored putting “the white man” in charge, with, of course, no recognition of women. We’ll reserve that important issue for another day.

Note on the text: There were no sound recording devices in 1858; the texts of these debates were produced by skilled shorthand reporters. They are probably as accurate as such a method can be, but errors would be inevitable. These texts were printed in newspapers across the country, reaching a far larger audience than the 12,000 people estimated to have heard Lincoln and Douglas debate on that day. 

Photo of Abraham Lincoln, 1863, Moses Parker Rice, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Photo of Lincoln statue, National Park Service