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Address on Colonization to a
Deputation of Negroes [1]
August 14, 1862
This afternoon the
President of the United States gave audience to a Committee of
colored men at the White House. They were introduced
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by the Rev. J. Mitchell,
Commissioner of Emigration. E. M. Thomas, the Chairman,
remarked that they were there by invitation to hear what the
Executive had to say to them. Having all been seated, the
President, after a few preliminary observations, informed them
that a sum of money had been appropriated by Congress, and
placed at his disposition for the purpose of aiding the
colonization in some country of the people, or a portion of
them, of African descent, thereby making it his duty, as it had
for a long time been his inclination, to favor that cause; and
why, he asked, should the people of your race be colonized, and
where? Why should they leave this country? This is, perhaps,
the first question for proper consideration. 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. In a word we suffer on each side. If this
is admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be
separated. You here are freemen I suppose.
A VOICE: Yes, sir.
The
President---Perhaps you have long been free, or all your lives.
Your race are suffering, in my judgment, the greatest wrong
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inflicted on any people. But
even when you cease to be slaves, you are yet far removed from
being placed on an equality with the white race. You are cut
off from many of the advantages which the other race enjoy. The
aspiration of men is to enjoy equality with the best when free,
but on this broad continent, not a single man of your race is
made the equal of a single man of ours. Go where you are
treated the best, and the ban is still upon you.
I do not propose to discuss
this, but to present it as a fact with which we have to deal. I
cannot alter it if I would. It is a fact, about which we all
think and feel alike, I and you. We look to our condition,
owing to the existence of the two races on this continent. I
need not recount to you the effects upon white men, growing out
of the institution of Slavery. I believe in its general evil
effects on the white race. See our present condition---the
country engaged in war!---our white men cutting one another's
throats, none knowing how far it will extend; and then consider
what we know to be the truth. But for your race among us there
could not be war, although many men engaged on either side do
not care for you one way or the other. Nevertheless, I repeat,
without the institution of Slavery and the colored race as a
basis, the war could not have an existence.
It is better for us both,
therefore, to be separated. I know that there are free men
among you, who even if they could better their condition are
not as much inclined to go out of the country as those, who
being slaves could obtain their freedom on this condition. I
suppose one of the principal difficulties in the way of
colonization is that the free colored man cannot see that his
comfort would be advanced by it. You may believe you can live
in Washington or elsewhere in the United States the remainder
of your life [as easily], perhaps more so than you can in any
foreign country, and hence you may come to the conclusion that
you have nothing to do with the idea of going to a foreign
country. This is (I speak in no unkind sense) an extremely
selfish view of the case.
But you ought to do
something to help those who are not so fortunate as yourselves.
There is an unwillingness on the part of our people, harsh as
it may be, for you free colored people to remain with us. Now,
if you could give a start to white people, you would open a
wide door for many to be made free. If we deal with those who
are not free at the beginning, and whose intellects are clouded
by Slavery, we have very poor materials to start with. If
intelligent colored men, such as are before me, would move in
this matter, much might be accomplished. It is exceedingly
important that
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we have men at the beginning
capable of thinking as white men, and not those who have been
systematically oppressed.
There is much to encourage you.
For the sake of your race you should sacrifice something of
your present comfort for the purpose of being as grand in that
respect as the white people. It is a cheering thought
throughout life that something can be done to ameliorate the
condition of those who have been subject to the hard usage of
the world. It is difficult to make a man miserable while he
feels he is worthy of himself, and claims kindred to the great
God who made him. In the American Revolutionary war sacrifices
were made by men engaged in it; but they were cheered by the
future. Gen. Washington himself endured greater physical
hardships than if he had remained a British subject. Yet he was
a happy man, because he was engaged in benefiting his
race---something for the children of his neighbors, having none
of his own.
The colony of Liberia has been
in existence a long time. In a certain sense it is a success.
The old President of Liberia, Roberts, has just been with
me---the first time I ever saw him. He says they have within
the bounds of that colony between 300,000 and 400,000 people,
or more than in some of our old States, such as Rhode Island or
Delaware, or in some of our newer States, and less than in some
of our larger ones. They are not all American colonists, or
their descendants. Something less than 12,000 have been sent
thither from this country. Many of the original settlers have
died, yet, like people elsewhere, their offspring outnumber
those deceased.
The question is if the colored
people are persuaded to go anywhere, why not there? One reason
for an unwillingness to do so is that some of you would rather
remain within reach of the country of your nativity. I do not
know how much attachment you may have toward our race. It does
not strike me that you have the greatest reason to love them.
But still you are attached to them at all events.
Author: Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865.
Title: Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 5, P.
370-373.
Publication date: 1953
Electronic
Form: sponsored by the Abraham Lincoln Association
(6-9-2005)
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