Quote:
Originally Posted by loveissucide
Only a racist by our standards. By the standards of his time, such as those of Stephen Douglas in the 1858 debates on slavery, he was actually one of the more enlightened. What must be remembered is that the idea of different races living amongst each other in a state of equality was an unknown concept. His use of racial slurs and confusion as to how to carry out Reconstruction are the failure of 19th Century Society, not just him.
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though the reconstruction was hard, lincoln was not trying to think that far ahead in terms of freeing the slaves. he freed them simply to preserve the union and end the war.
i quote lincoln..."My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that."
but as far as being a great president...yes he was truly one of the best. he saved the union...did end up freeing the slaves...and was a brilliant political mind.
i would want to meet:
jfk - he is just one of my favorite historical figures and i would want to know what he knew about what was really going on in the government those days.
mozart - so i can get his opinion on the direction of popular music.
god, also - yeah you can pretty much know anything with this guy...assuming we are going with the christian version of the afterlife.