Questions About John Brown

[Eva Elisabeth]

Since it is not entirely in the article - I once posted about the letter to Hahn on another thread, but here it goes again:

On March 12, 1864, Abraham Lincoln met with two leaders of the black community in New Orleans, French descendants named Jean Baptiste Roudanez and Arnold Bertonneau. They presented him with a petition demanding black suffrage signed by over thousand literate African Americans, many of them of French descent. The next day, Lincoln wrote a famous private letter to Louisiana Govenor Michael Hahn, in which he suggested that certain blacks should be allowed to vote:

Abraham Lincoln
Executive Mansion Washington D.C.
March 13, 1864



Hon. Michael Hahn

My dear Sir:

I congratulate you on having fixed your name in history as the first—free—state Governor of Louisiana. Now you are about to have a Convention which, among other things, will probably define the elective franchise. I barely suggest for your private consideration, whether some of the colored people may not be let in—as, for instance, the very intelligent, and especially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks. They would probably help, in some trying time to come, to keep the jewel of liberty within the family of freedom. But this is only a suggestion, not to the public, but to you alone.

Yours truly

A. LINCOLN
http://rogerjnorton.com/LincolnDiscussio...n#pid29558

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I think "root hog or die" simply meant that freedom also means to take over responsibility and care for oneself, DIY, like he himself and many others had to do at the frontier. The freed slaves had worked before and I would think their work force was still needed.
And I believe even if he had not yet an perfectly elaborated plan one goal Lincoln had in mind was equal rights and thus (legal) opportunities, like accessible education, for everyone to make his fortune.

I consider it much colder what Alexander Stephens considered benevolent to the blacks, as he wrote to Lincoln in December, 1864:

“We at the South do think African slavery, as it exists with us, both morally and politically right. This opinion is founded upon the inferiority of the black race. You, however, and perhaps a majority of the North, think it wrong."

As for Lincoln's former colonialization plan, I think this was due to the thinking of those times. He considered it better for both sides' sake as he expected the races not being able to live peacefully together. Due to considering the races to be too different, not one to be inferior.