Editing Talk:John Wilkes Booth/@comment-92.15.129.110-20140515163938 (section)

<span style="color:rgb(20,20,20);font-size:15px;line-height:20.53333282470703px;font-family:Arial;"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);">When President Lincoln said -</span></span>

<span style="color:rgb(20,20,20);font-family:Georgia,'TimesNewRoman',Times,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:20.53333282470703px;">"</span>'''I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races,'''<span style="color:rgb(20,20,20);font-family:Georgia,'TimesNewRoman',Times,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:20.53333282470703px;">" he stated nothing but a political fact.</span>

<span style="color:rgb(20,20,20);font-family:Georgia,'TimesNewRoman',Times,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:20.53333282470703px;">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."</span>

<span style="color:rgb(20,20,20);font-family:Georgia,'TimesNewRoman',Times,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:20.53333282470703px;">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.</span>

<span style="color:rgb(20,20,20);font-family:Georgia,'TimesNewRoman',Times,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:20.53333282470703px;">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.</span>