from the article:
"Lincoln was obsessed with solving America’s seemingly intractable race problem by persuading free blacks to lead the way for an exodus that would wash the United States of the original sin of slavery—without having to live alongside those it had enslaved...." Far from uniquely "obsessed", Lincoln's views on this subject were well within the tradition of presidents' thinking going all the way back to at least Thomas Jefferson:
"My proposition would be that the holders should give up all born after a certain day, past, present, or to come, that these should be placed under the guardianship of the state, and sent at a proper age to S. Domingo [i.e. Haiti].
There they are willing to receive them, & the shortness of the passage brings the deportation within the possible means of [Virginia state] taxation aided by charitable contributions."
Former President Madison also contemplated sending freed slaves back to Africa:
"In contemplating the pecuniary resources needed for the removal of such a number to so great a distance [freed slaves to Africa], my thoughts and hopes have long been turned to the rich fund presented in the western lands of the nation . . ."
-- James Madison, Letter to R. R. Gurley, December 28, 1831. "
President Monroe, as Virginia governor also considered returning freed slaves to Africa:
"1802: The government considered sending insurgent slaves to Sierra Leone. Governor Monroe discovered that under the law of Sierra Leone the slaves would be free as soon as they arrived...
...The ancestors of the present negroes were brought from Africa and sold here as slaves, they and their descendents for ever.
If we send back any of the race subject to a temporary servitude with liberty to their descendants will not the policy be mild and benevolent?' "
Even George Washington: "expressed moral support for plans by his friend the Marquis de Lafayette to emancipate slaves and resettle them elsewhere, but he did not assist him in the effort."
Point is: the question of resettling freed slaves was on the minds of our Founders, from the beginning.
What was unique and different about President Lincoln is that he actually invited former slaves to the White House, to express their own opinions on what they wanted.
So Lincoln was perhaps surprised to learn that returning to Africa was not their first choice.
So Lincoln was perhaps surprised to learn that returning to Africa was not their first choice.That tidbit is so rarely taught as to be extinct in modern education, but it is the most critical point in today's racial discussions. Where would you want to be if we would send you anywhere in the world?
Racism isn't causing poverty and the dissolution of the black family. Urban Democrat governing policies are.