If they stay in their old places, they jostle no white laborers; if they leave their old places, they leave them open to white laborers.
Abraham Lincoln
The Public Record
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. A member of the Republican Party, he is best known for leading the nation through the Civil War and for his efforts to abolish slavery, notably through the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Lincoln's leadership during this tumultuous period helped to preserve the Union and set the stage for the eventual passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which formally abolished slavery in the United States.
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Is it true, then, that colored people can displace any more white labor by being free than by remaining slaves?
In times like the present men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and in eternity.
It is insisted that their presence would injure and displace white labor and white laborers.
And then the latter will cost no blood, no precious life.
The proposed emancipation would shorten the war, perpetuate peace, insure this increase of population, and proportionately the wealth of the country.
And we will reach this, too, if we do not ourselves relinquish the chance by the folly and evils of disunion or by long and exhausting war springing from the only great element of national discord among us.
And if with less money, or money more easily paid, we can preserve the benefits of the Union by this means than we can by the war alone, is it not also economical to do it?
If, then, for a common object this property is to be sacrificed, is it not just that it be done at a common charge?
In a certain sense the liberation of slaves is the destruction of property--property acquired by descent or by purchase, the same as any other property.
This would be compromise, but it would be compromise among the friends and not with the enemies of the Union.
By mutual concession we should harmonize and act together.
Because of these diversities we waste much strength in struggles among ourselves.
Some would perpetuate slavery; some would abolish it suddenly and without compensation; some would abolish it gradually and with compensation: some would remove the freed people from us, and some would retain them with us; and there are…
Among the friends of the Union there is great diversity of sentiment and of policy in regard to slavery and the African race amongst us.
Without slavery the rebellion could never have existed; without slavery it could not continue.
Our strife pertains to ourselves--to the passing generations of men--and it can without convulsion be hushed forever with the passing of one generation.
They can not but remain face to face, and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between them.
I did so in language which I can not improve, and which, therefore, I beg to repeat: One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong and ought not to be extended.
In the inaugural address I briefly pointed out the total inadequacy of disunion as a remedy for the differences between the people of the two sections.
Steam, telegraphs, and intelligence have brought these to be an advantageous combination for one united people.
The disloyal citizens of the United States who have offered the ruin of our country in return for the aid and comfort which they have invoked abroad have received less patronage and encouragement than they probably expected.
That portion of the earth's surface which is owned and inhabited by the people of the United States is well adapted to be the home of one national family, and it is not well adapted for two or more.
One generation passeth away and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever." It is of the first importance to duly consider and estimate this ever-enduring part.
A nation may be said to consist of its territory, its people, and its laws.
Politicians like Abraham Lincoln
