Abraham Lincoln's Abolition Of Slavery
In Lincoln’s fourth debate with Stephen Douglas on September 18th, 1858, he mentioned the issue of slavery again. Abraham Lincoln supported the abolition of slavery but Stephen Douglas wanted retaining slavery. In the debate, Douglas tried to reveal that Lincoln who is an abolitionist believed in equality between white people and the Negroes. Back then, the whites had a belief that they were the superior race. Therefore, proposing the black race was equal to the white race was regarded with suspicion. Douglas did so because it could help him retain the support of majority of white people in campaigning for the Senator and the majority of white people believed they were superior comparing to all other races. However, as a political strategy, Douglas could make Lincoln lose his support from voters, whom Lincoln declared equality between black race with the whites. As Lincoln wanted to stand in the middle plus not to lose voters, Lincoln argued only through the issue of slavery inhumanity. He pointed out that slavery should be abolished in this country due to its inhumanity. Moreover, he was not in favor of creating racial and political equality between white people and black people. To balance out, he also believed that the white race was the superior race. Finally, pursuing the abolition of slavery didn’t
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mean that Lincoln supported racial equality. By comparing and analyzing the two speeches, I think that Abraham Lincoln was playing politics.
I believe that he supported both abolition of slavery and the racial equality because he was on the “campaign trail”, so he needed to get as many votes as he could to win. Once he won and got into office, the authority to legislate policies and laws are on him to pursue to his goals. Lincoln is smart because he not only got support from abolitionists but also kept favor of majority of white people. He flipped the argument into advantages that help him receive more votes from two different groups: abolitionists of slavery and people against the racial
equality.
mean that Lincoln supported racial equality. By comparing and analyzing the two speeches, I think that Abraham Lincoln was playing politics.
I believe that he supported both abolition of slavery and the racial equality because he was on the “campaign trail”, so he needed to get as many votes as he could to win. Once he won and got into office, the authority to legislate policies and laws are on him to pursue to his goals. Lincoln is smart because he not only got support from abolitionists but also kept favor of majority of white people. He flipped the argument into advantages that help him receive more votes from two different groups: abolitionists of slavery and people against the racial
equality.