Lectureanalyzes whether former U.S. president helped free slaves because ofpolitical pressure
By Jaynelle St. JeanStaff Writer
Abraham Lincoln: “preeminently the white man’s president” or”emphatically the black man’s”?
Michael Burlingame, author and editor of six books on Lincoln,argues the latter — Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in1863 out of his belief in the wrongfulness of slavery.
Burlingame made his case to about 40 audience members Monday inCasa Real. The lecture was jointly sponsored by the historydepartment, the Africana studies department and the library.
Burlingame’s view opposes that of a growing number of scholars whoascribe to what he called the “Reluctant Emancipator School ofThought.” In this view, Lincoln emancipated slaves only as a lastresort to maintain the union.
Lending credence to this interpretation of Lincoln is a statementhe made in an 1858 debate, Burlingame said. He shared an excerpt fromit:
“I am not, nor ever have I been, in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races… There is a physical difference between the white and black raceswhich I believe will forever prohibit the two races from livingtogether in social and political equality.”
Burlingame also read part of a letter Lincoln wrote to newspapereditor Horace Greeley in which he said, “What I do about slavery andthe colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the union,and what I forbear I forbear because I do not believe it would helpto save the union.”
Burlingame theorized that Lincoln made these statements with fullknowledge that they’d be publicized. By writing the letter just amonth before issuing the proclamation, Lincoln was “sugarcoating whathe knew would be a bitter pill” for whites to swallow at a time whenracist sentiment in the United States was pervasive, even in theNorth, he said.
“When a public figure gives a speech or writes a letter forpublication you have to ask, ‘Who is it addressed to?'” Burlingamesaid. “We have to beware of thinking that this is a person revealinghis innermost thoughts to his best friend or his shrink or hisspouse.”
But if the Reluctant Emancipator pack is right, what about thespeeches of Frederick Douglass, recognized as one of America’s firstgreat black speakers and foremost leaders of the abolitionistmovement?
The title of Monday’s presentation, “‘Emphatically the Black Man’sPresident’: New Light on Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass,” wasborrowed from a speech Douglass gave in 1865 that commended Lincoln.
In his speech, Douglass said he was one of the very few whiteAmericans who could speak with a black person without reminding himof his color.
“Evidently Frederick Douglass transcended something if he couldhave a white wife and not be lynched,” said Shirley Weber, chair ofthe Department of
Africana Studies. “The mere fact that Lincoln would inviteDouglass to lunch doesn’t show that he treated every individual in anegalitarian manner.”
In another speech, Douglass said Lincoln was “preeminently thewhite man’s president.”
Burlingame said Douglass’ statement was the result of anger withwhite politicians in general and some of that disillusionment “pouredover into Lincoln.”
