Talk:John Wilkes Booth/@comment-38.114.202.226-20140513154322/@comment-92.15.129.110-20140515164013

When President Lincoln said -

"I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races," he stated nothing but a political fact.

From the time he reentered national politics in 1854 until his 1860 campaign for president, Mr. Lincoln had in fact never proposed to "introduce political and social equality between the white and black races."

The core of his political platform was the proposal to prohibit slavery from spreading into the federal territories; in terms of policies related to slavery and race, President Lincoln only advocated repealing the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and restoring the Missouri Compromise.

On face value then, Mr. Lincoln's words are not a statement of racial supremacy; they only describe his campaign platform. Further, while he said it was not his purpose in 1858 to "introduce political and social equality between the white and black races", President Lincoln never denied that he believed in their political and social equality, and he never said that he would not support policies of racial equality in the future should public opinion become more receptive to them.