The Abraham Lincoln Myth

The Truth About "Honest Abe"

Abraham Lincoln, one of the nations most beloved presidents of all time. Since 1948, historians have never ranked Abraham Lincoln below the top 3 in presidential rankings. There have been well over 16,000 books written in appraisal over Lincoln. Throughout time in school, all children, teenagers, and college kids will be taught about the wonder of Lincoln. He stood up against the south for illegally leaving the union. He launched a necessary war to combat the evils of racism and slavery. His heroic spirit and will to end slavery led to victory and freedom. He was truly the “black man’s president,” according to Frederick Douglas.

This has all been taught to us throughout our time in schooling. Despite what we have been taught, we have been lied to. Instead of being one of the most anti racist presidents in history, he was actually a massive racist. Instead of being a heroic leader, he was a man who waged war upon the civilians. Instead of peace, he wanted war. Instead of his legacy being that of one of the best presidents, it should be that of a man who opposed racial equality, peaceful emancipation, freedom for the civilians, and sound economic policies.

Naturally, this take will be immediately discredited. After all, everybody loves Lincoln and things he was the best president we ever had. But if one were to take the time and listen to what I have to say, then you too will come to the conclusion that Abraham Lincoln was not a very good president.

The first topic of discussion is Lincoln’s opposition towards equality. Some people like political scientist Harry V. Jaffa believed that Lincoln was so pro-equality that he wanted to transform the government to focus on equality more than liberty itself. This statement is simply false. The clearest example comes in a debate with Senator Stephen Douglas in 1858:

I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which, in my judgement, will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality; and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position. I have never said anything to the contrary.

Lincoln never believed in the Declaration of Independence’s line of “all men are created equal.” Lincoln was staunchly against allowing blacks to vote, run for public office, or marry someone of the opposite race. He would argue Senator Douglas was in favor of equality as a manner to oppose him and called the idea of perfect social and political equality to be a “specious and fantastic arrangement of words.” Lincoln furthered from the idea of all men being created equal when he said he believed that the “Negro race was inferior to the White race.” He believed that Mexicans were “mongrells” as well. Lincoln hated the idea of freeing them by making them equals.

In a statement that might shock you, Lincoln even defended the right of slaveowners to own their “property,” saying that

When they remind us of their constitutional rights [to own slaves], I acknowledge them, not grudgingly but fully and fairly; and I would give them any legislation for the reclaiming of their fugitives.

When it came to his master plan for what to do with the freed slaves if he were to do such, he did not have a solution except for an idea that he developed from Henry Clay: colonization. When he was asked, before the war, what ought to be done with slaves, he said to “send them to Liberia, to their own native land.” When Lincoln held a White House meeting with freed black leaders, he implored them to lead a colonization movement back to Africa. He developed plans to send every single one of them to Africa, Haiti, Central America, and other countries outside the United States. Lincoln spelled it out to Congress when he directly told them:

I cannot make it better known than it already is, that I strongly favor colonization.

When Congress ended slavery in D.C. in 1862, he appropriated $600,000 as an initial authorization to send the freed slaves back to Africa. He would appoint James Mitchell as his Commissioner of Emigration, who planned to send them to areas such as the Danish West Indies, Dutch Guiana, British Guiana, British Honduras, Ecuador, and other places that were not D.C. Lincoln instructed the Secretary of the Interior, Caleb Smith, to work out plans for colonization. He signed a contract with businessman Bernard Kock to establish a colony in Haiti.

When it came to peaceful emancipation, Lincoln decided against it. What is the most surprising fact about Lincoln that in the Summer of 1861, Lincoln had numerous opportunities to liberate thousands of slaves, but he refused to do so. When Union General John Fremont issued a proclamation in Missouri that Unionist were allowed to keep their slaves but rebels would not be allowed to and could be shot, Lincoln only modified it to where he would give permission to fire upon civilians.

When the Union kid get some slaves into their hands, they did not free them. Instead, they were put to work doing the worst tasks in and around army encampments. Some were even set back to their owners.

When it came to actual emancipation, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was ineffective. The Emancipation Proclamation only applied to slaves in rebel territory. It would be hard pressed to find souther slave owners freeing their slaves because of Lincoln’s proclamation. In other words, it was nothing more than a political gimmick.

The President has purposely made the proclamation inoperative in all places where we have gained a military footing which makes the slaves accessible. He has proclaimed emancipation only where he has notoriously no power to execute it. The exemption of accessible parts of Louisiana, Tennessee, and Virginia renders the proclamation not merely futile, but ridiculous.

Lincoln maintained that the measure was just a wartime one, not a genuine emancipation. He even admitted that what he was doing was unconstitutional, hence why he called it a wartime measure.

Lincoln’s real objective were based on European influence in the war. Europe had recently abolished slavery through peaceful measures. They would surely balk at trading with and supporting the Confederacy if he introduced emancipation as his main goal of the war.

When it came to the Constitution and liberty, Lincoln believed in about none of it:

Even though the large majority of Americans, North and South, believed in a right of secession as of 1861, upon taking office Lincoln implemented a series of unconstitutional acts, including launching an invasion of the South without consulting Congress, as required by the Constitution; declaring martial law; blockading the Southern ports; suspending the writ of habeas corpus for the duration of his administration; imprisoning without trial thousands of Northern citizens; arresting and imprisoning newspaper publishers who were critical of him; censoring all telegraph communication; nationalizing the railroads; creating several new states without the consent of the citizens of those state; ordering Federal troops to interfere with elections in the North by intimidating Democratic voters; deporting a member of Congress, Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio, for criticizing the administration’s income tax proposal at a Democratic Party rally; confiscating private property; confiscating firearms in violation of the Second Amendment; and effectively gutting the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the Constitution, among other things.

It has been well documented that Lincoln abused any of those who disagreed with him. When he suspended habeas corpus, he did so to arrest and imprison people who were disagreeing with him. Thousands of Northern states were imprisoned without a trial or, in some cases, without being charged for a crime.

When it came to defeating the South, the Union took unnecessary measures to do so. As early as October 1861, General Louis Blenker’s division was beginning to burn civilians houses and public buildings in towns along its line of march in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. As early as the Battle of First Manassas, the Army Potomac was robbing hen roosts, slaughtering hogs, beef cattle, and cows, burning of a house or two, and plundering many other.

General Ulysses Grant issued his General Order No. 11 on July 23, 1862. This order specified that all male citizens who remained behind Union lines would be forced to take a Loyalty Oath to the United States government. Anyone who did so but was suspected of being disloyal would be shot and have their property seized.

When General Anthony Sherman, one of Lincoln’s most trusted generals, commanded Memphis he described that his ultimate purpose of the war was the “extermination not of soldiers alone, that is the least part of the trouble, but the people.” While he was ordering private property to be spared, he and his army were relentlessly destroying private property.

In Vicksburg, Mississippi, farms were stripped and houses burned. The objective behind this was to wreck the Southern economy and starve the population. Some citizens were forced to live in caves and eat animals like dogs, mules, and rate to survive.

Sherman was irrational in his justifications for the crimes he committed. He rationalized pillaging, plundering, and destroying the cities with cruel rhetorics such as “a woman who has fifty loads of fine furniture deserves to lose it.” He claimed the Southern citizens had this coming since they resisted the Lincoln administration.

When it came to Lincoln’s economic legacy, he was in favor of centralization the Whig’s ideas of mercantilism, national banking, tariffs, and more.

On the tariff issue, Lincoln refused to compromise. In his first inaugural address, he promised a military invasion of any states that refused to collect its share of tariff revenue.

The power confided in me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property, and places belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion— no using force against, or among the people anywhere.

Representative Clement L. Vallandigham called out Lincoln on July 10, 1861, over the disastrous tariffs that Lincoln imposed, which infuriated the South. In response, Lincoln had him arrested without a civil warrant, imprisoned without being charged, and then deported.

When Lincoln was inaugurated as president, there was no central bank. By 1862, Lincoln had signed a low that empowered the Secretary of the Treasury to issue paper money printed in green ink called greenbacks. These greenbacks were not immediately redeemable in gold or silver, rather, they were backed by a governmental promise to do so later down the road.

The National Currency Acts of 1863 and 1864 created a system of nationally chartered banks that issued bank notes supplied to them by the comptroller of the currency. Lincoln’s paper money flooded private banks so much that the amount of money in the circulation would double in just the first year. By July 1864, the greenback dollars were worth only thirty-five cents in gold.

Lincoln also signed the first income tax in American history, with a top rate of ten percent on income over $10,000. While it was eliminated in 1872, it established such a precedent that it aided the cause of the income taxation that would prevail under Woodrow Wilson in 1913.

In 1862, he signed a tax bill that contained 119 sections that imposed hundreds of excise taxes, stamp taxes, inheritance taxes, gross receipts taxes, and license taxes on almost every occupation. When Congressman Thaddeus Stevens protested against this, Lincoln threatened to arrest him.

Lincoln is known as one our of greatest presidents. However, the truth about Lincoln has revealed a much darker side to America’s most beloved president in history. He was an extreme racist and tyrant who was willing to punish anyone who stood in the way of his goals.