"Among the records found at the British archives is an 1863 order from Lincoln granting a British agent permission to recruit volunteers for a Belize colony."
Well. . . Kerflumoxed. . . I'm not sure this subject is "History 101," but I find it most interesting.
And whatever Lincoln's views on the inferiority of blacks and how best to deal with them after the war, they (Lincoln's views on race) have little or nothing to do with why the war began.
Lincoln's views were not developed, Mark, during the war. "Abraham Lincoln was an avid colonizationist. He quoted with approval Henry Clay's words on the topic. He touted colonization in his annual messages to Congress in 1861 and '62, in his appeal to border-state representatives for compensated emancipation (July 12, 1862), and in the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation (Sept. 22, 1862). In 1861, addressing Congress, he mentioned contraband slaves who had fallen into the hands of Northern troops, as well as the possibility of border states emancipating their slaves. He advocated that “steps be taken for colonizing both classes, (or the one first mentioned, if the other shall not be brought into existence), at some place, or places, in a climate congenial to them. It might be well to consider, too, -- whether the free colored people already in the United States could not, so far as individuals may desire, be included in such colonization.” A year later, he told Congress, “I cannot make it better known than it already is, that I strongly favor colonization.”
Four years before the war began, "In his “Speech on the Dred Scott decision” (June 26, 1857), he had scolded both parties for not taking up the cause:
"I have said that the separation of the races is the only perfect preventative of amalgamation. I have no right to say all the members of the Republican party are in favor of this, nor to say that as a party they are in favor of it. There is nothing in their platform directly on the subject. But I can say a very large proportion of its members are for it, and that the chief plank in their platform -- opposition to the spread of slavery -- is most favorable to that separation.
Such separation, if ever effected at all, must be effected by colonization; and no political party, as such, is now doing anything directly for colonization. Party operations at present only favor or retard colonization incidentally. The enterprise is a difficult one, but 'when there is a will there is a way;' and what colonization needs most is a hearty will. Will springs from the two elements of moral sense and self-interest. Let us be brought to believe it is morally right, and, at the same time, favorable to, or, at least, not against, our interest, to transfer the African to his native clime, and we shall find a way to do it, however great the task may be. The children of Israel, to such numbers as to include four hundred thousand fighting men, went out of Egyptian bondage in a body."
http://www.slavenorth.com/colonize.htm
As to Lincoln's views on race, I don't believe it was either stated or implied that it caused or effected the start of the war.
History 101....yep, it is part and parcel of many basic HS textbooks, contrary to the AP review, which causes me to wonder why this topic has made such a stir in the first place. In the Associated Press review (not Fox), the authors (Magness & Page) note, to quote the AP reporter, "Lincoln's view about colonization are well known among historians, even if they don't make it into most schoolbooks", the latter being a questionable generalization.
J
