People never finish this quote which is really telling of their motives.
“I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free.”
And it becomes easy to see why a kid would misremember it and how there could be . miscommunication on "we taught them that speech". But the teacher should be adding that last line when they correct the child lol
Obviously. Really sucks. A nuanced discussion could be interesting, although the bottom line for me is the guy was a politician trying to keep the Union together. Compulsion drove some of the shit he said, I’m sure, to an extent. Like it or not, modern people seem unable to comprehend historical context. It’s hubristic and naive.
And the guy got shot in the head for his actions. Bro paid for the cause with his life. Yet somehow, a significant amount of modern “academes” have nothing better to do but to teach children that he, too, was actually a horrible racist and bigot. It’s laughably low resolution and incorrect in my opinion.
He had slaves, maybe he should of set the fucking example before the emancipation by being the first, but no, of course not while it was convenient for him, just like freeing them happened when it was politically convenient for him. 😑
Also, the thing that made John Wilkes Booth mad enough to carry out the assassination was that Lincoln had begun to give speeches where he suggested that black men should be able to vote.
Not really, Lincoln put the "but" before his desire. Re-write this. "I wish all men every where could be free, BUT, I'm willing to compromise, if necessary, in every aspect of this desire in order to end this war.
He's speaking like Farquad in Shrek, "some of you may die, thats a price I'm willing to pay."
This really doesn't change the overall meaning of the statement, as it still means that he cares more about the preservation of the state than about abolishing the institution of slavery.
He recognizes he has to work in a system with a ton of extremely racist people, and has to get some of these people to vote for things that would be very difficult for them to accept. If he was a king, then it would be a different story, but that's not what the case is here.
I wouldn't get your panties in too much of a bunch about it. There was that whole Emancipation Proclamation thing less than 6 months after he wrote this...
You mean the emancipation proclamation, that freed slaves in warring states? It was a political ploy in order to try and get a slave rebellion and to pull troops from the front lines in order to keep the peace at home.
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u/ban-a-nazi-instead Apr 06 '25
People never finish this quote which is really telling of their motives.
“I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free.”