Union, they said, but not for black freedom… . Desertionrnrates rose alarmingly. Many soldiers blamed thernEmancipation Proclamation.rnClosing his address, Lincoln spoke of the duty imposed onrnAmericans bv those who had fallen on the great battlefield. Wern”here highly resolve,” he said, in his immortal words, “thatrnthese dead shall not have died in ain—that this nation, underrnGod, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that governmentrnof the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perishrnfrom the earth.” If Southerners found this incredible, it is understandable.rnThe Confederates had never sought to cause the Governmentrnof the United States to “perish from the earth.” It was thernUnion that was seeking to cause the Confederacy and the governmentsrnof the 11 Southern states to “perish.” Had the Southrnwanted the government to “perish from the earth,” the Confederaternarmy could have marched into Lincoln’s capital afterrnthe First Battle of Bull Run in June 1861, when the Union armyrnhad been sent up the road to Washington in wild retreat. ThernSouth did not want this; the South only wanted to be free.rnWhile Lincoln surely knew his eloquent words would bernnoted, and remembered, he could not have known his brief remarksrnwould become the most famous address in Americanrnhistory. Nor is there evidence that Lincoln, at this moment, deliberatelyrnenlarged the war aims of the Union. But at Gettysburg,rnthe war aims of the Union were enlarged, dramatically. Inrnthat address, the)’ do go beyond anything Lincoln enunciatedrnbefore the war began. Indeed, if racial equality was now Lincoln’srnand the Union’s goal, then Lincoln himself was arnchanged man. For the Abraham Lincoln of 1861 was no championrnof political or social equality.rn”We Cannot Make Them Equals”rnThe Lincoln Americans know, the father figure with the wisernand wonderful wit, who came out of Illinois to free the slaves,rnand believed in racial equality—who would have marched withrnMartin Luther King, Jr.—would be unrecognizable to his eontemporaries.rnWhile Lincoln as eady as 1854 had condemnedrnslavery as a “monstrous injustice,” and bravely took the antislavcr’rnside in senatorial campaign debates with Stephen A. Douglas,rnhere is the Republican candidate for the thiited StatesrnSenate on the stump, in Charleston, Illinois, on September 18,rn1858, after he had been baited by the “Little Giant” to explainrnwhere he stood on marriage between the races, and on socialrnand political equality:rnI will sav then that I am not, nor ever have been in favorrnof bringing about in any way the social and politicalrnequality of the white and black races,—that I am not norrnever have been m favor of making voters or jurors of negroes,rnnor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarryrnwith white people; and I will say in addition to thisrnthat there is a physical difference between the white andrnblack races which I believe will for ever forbid the twornraces living together on terms of social and politicalrnequality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, whilernthe’ do remain together there must be the position of superiorrnand inferior, and I as much as any other man amrnin favor of having the superior position assigned to thernwliite race.rnFour years before, at Peoria, on October 16, 1854, Lincoln confessedrnto his ambivalence as to what should be done about slavery,rnand with the freed black men and women were slaveryrnabolished:rnIf all earthly power were given me, 1 should not knowrnwhat to do, as to the existing institution. My first impulsernwould be to free all the slaves, and send them tornLiberia,—to their own native land. . . . [But free] them,rnand make them politically and socially, our equals? Myrnown feelings will not admit of this; and if mine would,rnwe well know that those of the great mass of white peoplernwill not. . . . A universal feeling, whether well or illfounded,rncan not be safely disregarded. We can not,rnthen, make them equals.rnThree years later, in June of 1857, in Springfield, Lincoln wasrnstill entertaining the idea of repatriating the freed slaves back torntheir native continent:rnSuch separation, if ever effected at all, must be effectedrnby colonization;. .. what colonization most needs is arnheart’ will. . .. Let us he brought to believe it is morallyrnright… to transfer the African to his native clime,rnand we shall find a way to do it, however great therntask may be.rnIn urging colonization Lincoln was echoing men of farrngreater learning and higher station, such as Jefferson and Madison.rnIn 1829, the author of the Constitution became presidentrnof the American Colonization Societv—founded by John Randolphrnand Henry Clay after the War of 1812—”in the beliefrnthat its plan to return slaves to Africa represented the most sensiblernway out of that long-festering crisis.” Clay, Lincoln’s idol,rnadvocated returning the slaves to Africa throughout his publicrncareer. In eulogizing Cla’ in Springfield on July 6, 1852, Lincolnrncelebrated his hero’s lifelong association with the AmericanrnColonization Society, and quoted Clay’s 1827 address tornthat society:rnThere is a moral fitness in the idea of returning to Africarnher children, whose ancestors have been torn from her byrnthe ruthless hand of fraud and violence. Transplanted inrna foreign land, the) will carry back to their native soil thernrich fruits of religion, civilization, law and liberty.rnIn hearty approval of Clay’s words, Lincoln declared:rnThis suggestion of the possible ultimate redemption ofrnthe African race and African continent was made twent-rnfive years ago. Ever}- succeeding year has added strengthrnto the hope of its realization. May it indeed be realized!rnGradual repatriation and return of all the slaves to Africa, saidrnLincoln in the closing words of his long eulogy, would be a “gloriousrnconsummation”—Henry Clay’s greatest contribution tornhis country.rnLincoln’s words in the decade prior to his presidency are joltingrnto the modern ear. But all they tell us is this: on racialrnequalit)’, Lincoln in 1858 was a man of his time and place. Likernalmost all white males of his age, he believed the races shouldrnremain separate. This is confirmed by his ardent admirer, Gen-rnOCTOBER 1997/15rnrnrn