Guide to the Most (and Least) Politically Diverse Colleges,

[Zinhead]

@cobrat - You are arguing that Lincoln secretly held modern day attitudes toward race, which is highly unlikely. To paraphrase Lincoln, in order to make your point, you have to prove a horse chestnut to be a chestnut horse, and that some vague private notes overwhelm his public statements. Since it is highly unlikely that I will convince you of my point, and you will not convince me of yours, I will let W.E.B. Du Bois comments on Lincoln stand as my opinion on this matter.

Abraham Lincoln was a Southern poor white, of illegitimate birth, poorly educated and unusually ugly, awkward, ill-dressed. He liked smutty stories and was a politician down to his toes. Aristocrats—Jeff Davis, Seward and their ilk—despised him, and indeed he had little outwardly that compelled respect. But in that curious human way he was big inside. He had reserves and depths and when habit and convention were torn away there was something left to Lincoln—nothing to most of his contemners. There was something left, so that at the crisis he was big enough to be inconsistent—cruel, merciful; peace-loving, a fighter; despising Negroes and letting them fight and vote; protecting slavery and freeing slaves. He was a man—a big, inconsistent, brave man.