Team Chief replied: "99.9% of what they teach in school about "The Great Emancipator" is nothing but BS. Then again, you have to keep in mind that 99% of the text books used in schools nationwide are printed in the North, and they won the War Between the States. And as the saying goes, "The victor gets to write the history books." This is a shining example of that being true. Some facts about Old Abe that most people are unaware of: Lincoln was a member of an organization (the name escapes me) whose primary purpose was the relocation of former slaves back to Africa. This organization was actually doing it, and the area in which the former slaves were relocated is now a formal country - Liberia. Lincoln was the only American president to ever violate the 4th Amendment to the US Constitution by suspending the writ of habeus corpus. This allowed him to arrest and imprison more than 400 newspaper editors who were publicly critical of his war efforts agains the Confederacy. These editors were all held without warrants, without trials, and were kept in prison until their newspaper offices were destroyed by citizens. Then they were released. Lincoln had a staff member who had a hotel "service" bell on his desk, and this staff member used to brag that "with a ring of that bell, I can imprison any citizen of the United States for as long as I want." This, of course, was after Lincoln had suspended the write of habeus corpus. Lincoln had no higher thoughts about the n*egro race than any other American of that time, North or South. In a letter to Horace Greely in 1862 he said: "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause." In a debate in 1858 with Stephen A. Douglas in Charleston SC, he also said: "I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races - that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the n*egro should be denied everything." So much for "The Great Emancipator" nonsense."