[Libertarianize the GOP]

I would suggest that you read a little history of Lincoln. Then in order to prove your claim you will need to prove that he never said any of the well attributed racist statements or that he never uttered any other racist statements that history has forgotten. Proving a negative is not possible.

Lincoln in his first debate with Stephen Douglas: "I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong, having the superior position. . . . I agree with Judge Douglas he [the Negro] is not my equal in many respects." Claiming that ones own race is superior and that the Negro race is not equal is racist by most definitions.

[KingArthur305]

Most everyone in 1865 was racist. Urika!

[Ditto]

I would suggest that you read a little history of Lincoln. Then in order to prove your claim you will need to prove that he never said any of the well attributed racist statements or that he never uttered any other racist statements that history has forgotten. Proving a negative is not possible.

I have read a great deal on Lincoln -- likely more than you - and I know exactly what he said and the context in which he was saying it.

But if you want the discussion, please define what a racist is. Only with that definition settled, can proceed to the arguments pro and con.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

As usual for the Lost Causers, you conveniently leave out the next part of that Lincoln quote, the part that Douglas was trying to hammer him with throughout the debates...

I agree with Judge Douglas he [the Negro] is not my equal in many respects certainly not in color — perhaps not in intellectual and moral endowments; but in the right to eat the bread without leave of anybody else which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every other man.”

Now, you might cal that racist by today's standards, but by the standards of the 1850s, it was revolutionarily racially egalitarian.