Lincoln and Colonization: Policy or Propaganda?

Either/or propositions are almost always misleading, at best, in describing historical events. Historical explanations ought to be more subtle and complex than or, especially in dealing with the nuances of political rhetoric where multiple meanings are inescapable. Every politician-statesperson knows that what he says in public—and even in private—will be seen as having a propaganda motive.

Voters know that political leaders don't just speak to tell voters what's on their minds. They speak to persuade as well as to explain. When and where does the message change from being what it seems—a report on some policy that the leader obviously wants support for—to an effort to shape the public mind?

Historians have had considerable trouble in drawing that line with Abraham Lincoln, and they have usually done so by taking either/or positions. One of the most significant examples of that problem arises in his December 1, 1862, Second Annual Message to Congress, discussing colonization.One school of thought—actually one school with two faces—sees Lincoln's advocacy of colonization as direct and honest: He wanted blacks to leave the country and tried to talk them into doing so. The view was especially popular when Lincoln's love of the Union was the focus while his emancipation instincts were minimized.

Writing in 1945, James G. Randall saw colonization as Lincoln's solution to many problems of race relations. That solution, Randall implied, was a good idea.1Recent writers have agreed that Lincoln was straightforward in his advocacy.

But this time it is certainly not a good thing. Mark E. Neely Jr. calls colonization 'a profoundly racist movement' that offered 'an all white country in the future.' Neely notes that Lincoln abandoned the idea in 1863.

Lerone Bennett in Forced Into Glory takes that idea and escalates it to emphasize and excoriate 'racist' Lincoln and his plan. Eric Foner has been afflicted by Bennett's view. In a New York Times review of William Miller's Lincoln's Virtues, Foner says, 'Lincoln's support of a policy that might be called the ethnic cleansing of America was no transitory fancy.' Thus a modern view adopted by one of the most respected Lincoln scholars and shared by two strange bedfellows (a widely respected prize-winning historian and an editor of a popular magazine with next to no training in history) condemns the president for his racism as manifested in his colonizing plans.2The other school on colonization agrees that it was not a good thing, but clears Lincoln of racial bias by seeing the idea as a propaganda tool.

When racist Democrats yelled 'miscegenation,' Lincoln and the Republicans used colonization as political cover. In debates with Douglas, Lincoln had to respond to the Little Giant's racism (calling blacks 'crocodiles,' for example) with some option that would defuse it. As president, Lincoln used colonization as a smokescreen for advancing equality. 'Every time [Lincoln] contemplated some new antislavery move,' says Stephen Oates, 'he made a great fuss about colonization.' But he and his party knew that colonization was a logistical impossibility.

As one Republican politician wrote privately, 'Colonization is a damned humbug but it will take with the people.'3Recent historiography continues the debate. Articles by George Frederickson and Don Fehrenbacher show the division well. Frederickson argues that colonization was Lincoln's policy even though the president believed in the humanity of African Americans.

Fehrenbacher sees colonization as 'part of the process of conditioning the public mind for the day of jubilee.' Most recently Michael Vorenberg agrees that politics, more than principle, motivated Lincoln.4So we see the issue between on one hand, propaganda: Lincoln didn't really support colonization but used it to take the pressure off his egalitarian goals and policy, and on the other hand, policy: the president advocated colonization and honestly believed in it. The gap between the two is not as stark as the dichotomy suggests, but there is a difference, and it is evident in Lincoln's solution to the problem of slavery in the nation at war as seen in his Second Annual Message.Exactly one month before the Emancipation Proclamation was to go into effect, December 1, 1862, Lincoln sent his Second Annual Message to Congress.5 The message itself began with routine reports from cabinet officers, and then Lincoln picked up the baton. He began with an elegant description of why the Union had to be united, quoting paragraphs from his First Inaugural, and then showing how the nation was united physically and economically.

Only the ideas of the time divided the nation, he implied, and they might be changed in a generation. Then he turned to the question of slavery in the nation. He proposed a plan for gradual, compensated emancipation with colonization, and demonstrated how his plan would be far less costly fiscally than the estimated cost of the war.

To that end he proposed three constitutional amendments. Then he turned to the question of how African Americans could fit into a free society. This was essentially an argument that blacks, even those not colonized, would not threaten white society once slavery ended.

Blacks would stay in the South, which was made congenial by climate, familiarity, and their longtime commitment of their labor. They would not take white jobs; if they stayed where they were, they would, said Lincoln, 'jostle no white laborers; if they leave their old places, they leave them open to white laborers.' And even if they moved into new places, surely their numbers were so small compared to the white population that no white person would be threatened.6The president then concluded with one of the most elegant statements in the Lincoln literature, a statement that has been quoted frequently to show Lincoln's passionate devotion to the Union and liberty—sometimes to one, sometimes the other, and occasionally both: 'Fellow citizens we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves....

The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it.

We—even we here—hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free—honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best, hope of earth.

Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just—a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.'7The plan that Lincoln was pleading for was not the emancipation proclamation, nor a plan to arm the slaves to fight for their own freedom and the Union. It was a passionate defense of the three constitutional amendments that Lincoln proposed to the Congress.

Together they were Lincoln's plan for gradual, compensated emancipation with colonization.The first amendment offered compensation to every slave state that would abolish slavery by 'the year of our Lord one thousand and nine hundred' (thirty-eight years, more than a generation). The government would pay the states in interest-bearing bonds for every slave freed at the time he or she was freed. But, if any state reintroduced slavery, it would have to refund the bonds and the interest to the federal government.8 The second amendment compensated the loyal owners of slaves who had gained freedom 'by the chances of war.' This offered repayment for the loss of property when slaves freed themselves by escaping to Union lines.

The third amendment said that 'Congress may appropriate money and otherwise provide, for colonizing free colored persons, with their own consent, at any place or places without the United States.'To modern eyes the contrast between Lincoln's eloquence and the three proposed amendments is stark. The amendments include the possibility, even the likelihood, that some states would keep slavery for more than a generation. More surprising still is the possibility that states might renege on emancipation if they were willing to return the compensation they had been given.

Furthermore, the idea of compensation seemed to many people at the time to concede the premises of slavery—slaves were pieces of property. Then there was the colonization proposal, which most blacks (though not all—remember Martin Delany, Henry Highland Garnet, and one of Frederick Douglass' sons) rejected as endorsing the racist idea that they could not live beside whites but that, even after making southern lands productive, they would have to leave the land of their birth. And yet Lincoln spoke of 'giving freedom to the slave, assuring freedom to the free.'Historians seem confused by the mixed message.

Peter Parish writes the whole thing off as propaganda. He argues that Lincoln could not have been serious about these conservative amendments because he declared later in the address that blacks were in such a minority in this country that they could not replace or endanger white men in the workforce or anywhere else. James McPherson admits that the message is ambiguous, yet sees in the stirring peroration evidence that Lincoln's true goal was 'a peace measure to abolish the institution everywhere.' Lawanda Cox calls the defense of the proposed amendments 'unpersuasive' and hangs on the golden coda to insist that ending slavery was Lincoln's goal.9 David Donald presents a more complex picture, but in the end he joins the group that sees Lincoln's actions as politics more than policy.

The president, Donald notes, had to move more to the center after the election defeats of 1862, and he thought that some of the rebel states or parts of them might return by January first. Parts of Tennessee, Arkansas, the Norfolk region of Virginia, and especially Louisiana would possibly return to the fold. The president was also worried, Donald says, that the Emancipation Proclamation might not be effective.

Perhaps a bribe as well as a threat might end slavery and with it the main source of secessionist inspiration and war making.10David Zarefsky makes a more complex argument. These apparent contrasts are an imperative part of Lincoln's 'paradigm of rhetorical leadership.' Zarefsky sees the Second Annual Message as the 'best case of rhetorical leadership in the corpus of Lincoln's writings.' He argues that presidents produce change by recognizing old paradigms but then by integrating change within them. New wine needs to come in old bottles.

The best presidents fashion a way to move to new visions by defining opportunities that existing conditions permit. As Zarefsky says, 'Presidents lead by giving voice to a view of the world that offers audiences different and better ways of seeing their own situation.'11How did Lincoln's message to Congress do that? Lincoln, says Zarefsky, makes significant rhetorical in the on First the president compensated emancipation and Lincoln this by that colonization was Then he an to emancipation by showing that to it is without This is where Zarefsky to Lincoln's argument that blacks no threat to white society.

Lincoln a which his but it also and remembered as to Thus Lincoln was new ideas of emancipation and even while on the policy that conservative is propaganda that true goal of emancipation a of But this argument because Zarefsky, though he writes from within the of his own He to and a Lincoln for our many other he to that Lincoln a process that us must be a and emancipation a Lincoln must be up to being to the he them to the nation to a new of The true but colonization the that many have made it. emancipation within the of Lincoln's devotion to 'the whole country our may have in might imperative of the of to a Lincoln in the not the or escape from this about Lincoln's colonization if we it not as Lincoln's plan but as one of Lincoln's Lincoln to have colonization as one of to free the slaves and the nation from We have to our to to see our great with a plan. Lincoln has confused on this He did not his amendments to parts of the nation. first of the three amendments says 'Every slavery which shall abolish the at any or before the first day of in the year of our Lord one thousand and nine shall But he must have the because the time for states to from any of this had was Other parts of the nation would different colonization and emancipation saw colonization as one way to who wanted to leave this nation and up in a place where white would be less and where their own might Other would also freedom to blacks who stayed does not have to be seen as the solution to what to do with the freed Lincoln knew it do the As as the he had that many slaves could be logistical were Lincoln knew of the propaganda of colonization, he also saw it as one part of a policy. colonization was in Lincoln's that colonization be He surely knew that many blacks and whites were made to the of his plan when he with the a before he the Emancipation Lincoln to that that their colonization would a to white he that a colonization or would show the white population that blacks could the Republican of and their own It was not a to And if blacks their in a they might be colonization was a Lincoln could support colonization and not be a racist of opportunities for a population from and to them off the Lincoln to Congress that the free population would stay in the and that, in any it was small to threaten he was not his colonization he was describing in to he was don't to some those that stay threaten white The president knew he in a world of and many of them of the time about colonization does some for or about Lincoln's was used as a for When people spoke of colonization, they were usually about how many blacks they had in or some could be by But while Lincoln was on how many would he with through the that Lincoln used in two the first time in the Union it was used in as a from about the of and emancipation to The second time was in the Second Annual But the president used the after of colonization, the that colonization In a cabinet on 1862, when colonization But Lincoln must be and without to of the many Lincoln had is that on January 1, the president was to emancipation in The itself the still in he had the Second which freed the slaves of loyal slave he had blacks that into their and he was to his emancipation plan to the The itself was a that ways of slaves in places still in were and forever as of January slaves in by the would be free if they had been slaves of loyal slaves in that also were free by the as in some places and as in such as Tennessee, and would have their by the state that were in the Blacks would be made free in these places, but the states would the of blacks by the for their state might have different that when Lincoln his goals in his last public address he that a plan he had in December was the plan which might possibly be emancipation is also of with modern the we insist that slavery was a and people are not to with is and has been The does not not as as some way to give up the is a It the of William his to a from the into which it has not to in a the Most modern Americans or at and was not to the Martin of the might also speak with of And Lincoln did so of a commitment to gradual, compensated emancipation with there is no evidence in of Lincoln's in colonization he began to colonization and emancipation while the He then to the of these them in that and rhetoric that has into as our of But Lincoln was not the of our In the colonization what he especially was for Henry the equality. It was a that respected the power, and the of of his The colonization society did not into it did not speak to the slaves to them it no was a conservative as he his Lincoln from that into where slavery was widely and he did not as no has how it could be at once without a even to the of and his to of on the who would into the Union of these to and even the last of the than slavery a are their just at the time Lincoln also in the 'an of for the of slavery, are to and to the white of that men are Lincoln made no between the of and of Lincoln some of most the of the Second Annual of colonization from would the of But to do so must go to the of our and and the which They must the us and that of which America presents to a They also would to the freedom in America and the of the slave then these would not have their they must the and the light of and the love of Lincoln's of such rhetoric the passionate commitment he had when it to gradual, compensated the war Lincoln his commitment to this the war almost a year Lincoln his gradual, compensated emancipation this time his rhetoric was more but the were just as this new would end the save and the Union.

It he 'the most means of It would end the 1862, Lincoln a of Congress the United ought to with any state which may of slavery, giving to such state to be used by such state at to for the public and by such change of Lincoln just He how this measure would The on a by the that slaves states would into rebel the Union to in The for the rebel in the that the institution of slavery and made of slave But if loyal slave states could be to leave the they would end all hope in that could the and support of those And emancipation this plan would be a he and not emancipation is better for to his on As he David emancipation of slaves in the he spoke to the states to gradual, compensated emancipation and the do not to the for if would, be to the of the a and of it may far and emancipation with compensation would freedom as the of not or Lincoln's devotion to the idea to his not good has not been by one effort in all in the of it is to the not have to that have of any other that Lincoln with such spoke a third time in of gradual, compensated 1862, he to the state a them one more time to the plan. of the more for than any other of Lincoln all could have for the in the emancipation the war would be ended. And the plan proposed is yet the most and means of ending The war slavery the war continues as it must if the be not the institution in states will be by and the of the war.' He them of the of the and process he and them there was a place for blacks to do not speak of emancipation at but of a at to in America for colonization, be and in and when numbers shall be to be and for one the freed people will not be so to Then a last are and as this at the it to the of states and As would popular government for the best people in the that do in no country is in great the and to of government is to the and are and To more than to any the is to assure that and that and to own The next time Lincoln spoke of his plan was in the Second Annual ending with the eloquence Lincoln's for and In David his as Lincoln called the president in the and wrote to a Lincoln's whole is in his plan of the Second Annual Message by the the to be that Congress the by his plan of compensated emancipation historical usually the of colonization and emancipation with the that after the states turned Lincoln the third Emancipation One about Lincoln's interest in Neely has the of evidence that the that in he and Lincoln and that Lincoln said he that colonization would be It would have been Neely for the two men to have on the day that said they But it is well to that the of still spoke of where the people loyal or of and of their of African might that through of and while Lincoln about colonization, he was to do it. a while he a in (a which a said had thousand and then moved in of the but Lincoln still to have his for the process 1, It was that that would in his the has off that idea of have always thought it as a and Lincoln then to have abandoned the idea as because of the and that the as of a that he more by the time the war the gradual, compensated emancipation plan had emancipation for all slaves was the of the owners were and no group of slaves to be The and of war the Union and president to take But the Lincoln had declared the way he thought it have a change that come as the of We may be or made by so freedom for the slaves themselves would be in in giving this the it three to be all do not have to be in states in the United to free their and always Other in the world with the of the war the for compensated and estimated that the war cost those been used to end slavery, the government could have and freed and a to every freed and still had for to slaves for of And of the would have their the move to from white did not African Americans. The of sent of blacks to of the African Henry and a And that to up to the But no one knew this at the December 1, 1862, most of the to Lincoln's plan was But the New York Times thought that there might be some in what Lincoln had is to be for his of view.

He the of the day which so the and a true a policy which shall and the as well as the It would be best for the slaves themselves and the country at to be from 'the of the It be if to to and some that while it shall be for the of the institution yet shall be free of all constitutional shall the of at of the and shall no to society or the Lincoln have said it better but this was to what he wanted to The Second Annual Message had Lincoln's hope for how emancipation would be But even great do not always what they in the way they it. That may be a (a