I agree that we should probably take this discussion off list. However, how do you account for his put-down of Black leaders near the end of his Presidency? (He "invited" them to the White House in order to denigrate their views on race matters, and otherwise dress them down.) How do you account for his well-known views that Blacks were inferior? How do you account for the fact that the Emancipation Proclamation did not free any slaves that the Union had the power to liberate? And how do you account for the fact that Black people today think little of, or about, Lincoln? Lincoln wanted to save the Union. He did not set out to free the slaves, and, in any event, some very bad men might see some tactical advantage in freeing slaves (but nonetheless also enforcing a cruel peonage in place of the Peculiar Institution).
Lincoln was a bad man, so were a lot of other people. The latter fact does not detract from the former. In relative terms, at least, I find much more to respect and admire in the Abolitionists, particularly the more radical ones who dared to think about the central issue of redistributive justice. Some of their progeny kept the faith, and played an important role in the founding of the NAACP, for example. Lincoln had little to nothing to do with the real defenders of racial justice in America. -----Original Message----- From: Paul Finkelman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 23, 2004 3:37 PM To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics Subject: Re: Are the Ten Commandments the foundation ofthe Anglo-Americanlegal system? I suspect that Lincoln's extremely complicated views on race, and his actual policies towards blacks are well beyond the scope of this list serve. I will simply point out that Lincoln was the first president to invite a black man into the White House, the first President to ask for the advice of a black, the first President endorse blacks as officers in the military, the first President to invite a black to his inauguration and to greet him in public as his friend, the first President to endorse black male suffrage, and I believe the first President to appoint a black to public office. Given the racial attitudes of most white American at the time, it is pretty hard to argue that Lincoln was "a bad man." It would have been nice if all presidents before Lincoln (and most after) were equally "bad." Newsom Michael wrote: > Paul, you give Lincoln far too much credit, I fear. Take a look at his > relations with African-Americans, his condescension, and worse. On the > subject of race, he was a bad man, pure and simple. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Paul Finkelman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, December 20, 2004 10:51 PM > To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics > Subject: Re: Are the Ten Commandments the foundation ofthe > Anglo-Americanlegal system? > > > ... Lincoln resurrected the promise of the D of I at > Gettysburg and in his five years as President. ... > _______________________________________________ > To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw > > Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others. -- Paul Finkelman Chapman Distinguished Professor University of Tulsa College of Law 3120 East 4th Place Tulsa, Oklahoma 74104-2499 918-631-3706 (office) 918-631-2194 (fax) [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others. _______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
