What is attributed to Lind in the review sounds accurate according to my knowledge of the subject, including the idea of exporting Blacks to Central America. The joke at the time was that it would raise the level of civilization in both the United States and Central America.
My understanding of the Republican economic project was that their intention was to promote the expansion of agriculture through the Homestead Act, which would expand the demand for industrial products, which would be protected by the tariff, while limiting immigration. I'm adding a note that Mark Lause sent, which bounced: Mark Lause attempted to send this to pen-l, writing:
In the end, this is unoriginal and rather astounding drivel on about every level imaginable... Where Lind "astutely notes that many mainstream historians have tended to play down, even whitewash, Lincoln's prejudices," he and his reviewer seem to be completely confuses the state of historical scholarship on Lincoln today with what it was in the 1930s. In the end, Lind's view of Lincoln as Victorian yuppie clicks nicely with that of the Springfield Tourist Bureau.
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
