Abraham Lincoln at HHS

Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, visited with US/Va History students on February 7th, 2005. Honest Abe discussed his upbringing and early political career before taking questions.

Elise (l)- Why would you fight to save blacks from slavery but then want to send them back to Africa with your colonization plan? ANSWER- It was the deep-rooted prejudices of the time. Some people in the North were willing to accept not having blacks as slaves, but many were also not willing to accept them having the same rights as everyone else.

Jane (center)- Because you did not want to interfere with slavery in the South, were you opposed to Harried Tubman and the Underground Railroad? Answer- I was a good politician so I would not say that I opposed her. I tried to deny support of slavery, not wanting it to spread. But I also recognized the rights people had to slaves even though I did not agree with them.

Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.

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.

Jide- (l) Did you actually order the execution of any Southern soldiers in retaliation for the Confederates executing black soldiers, as you stated you would? Answer- No, I was usually pardoning the execution of soldiers.

Parand- (3rd row, right) Did you advise Northerners to obey the Fugitive Slave Act? Answer- I believe in constitutional rights and the law. In the end, I really respect the law.

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.

Ummarra- Did you ever feel bad about breaking your campaign promise regarding slaves in the South when you issued the Emancipation Proclamation? Answer- I did not feel bad about it at all. We were at war, so I wanted to take away as many resources from the South as I could and that included slaves.

Tahira- What is the best way to spread democracy around the world? Answer- Practice what we preach. We should be an example of the power of democracy.

Ben- Although you admired Thomas Jefferson for the Declaration of Independence, did you resent him for having slaves? Answer- I am a realist. The view I had of the U.S. was not from the Constitution, but the Declaration. It was the foundation of everything we did. The Declaration is what the country is all about. Jefferson had to make a bargain with the Devil and accept slavery or else there would not have been a country.

Let us revere the Declaration of Independence. Let us readopt the Declaration of Independence, and with it the practices and policy which harmonize with it.

Juliana- Did you ever meet Jefferson Davis and if so what did you think of him? Answer- I never met him but I did sit in his chair in the capital of the Confederacy. It was interesting to think what he must have been thinking.

Neil- What was your greatest accomplishment and greatest mistake? Answer- Winning the Civil War and keeping the country together was my biggest accomplishment. My biggest regret was suspending habeas corpus in order to help win the war.

Rena (r)- Did you believe that the Civil War was God's punishment on the U.S. for slavery? Answer- Yes. I truly believe God is an all-powerful force. I also believed that slavery was a stain and a sin against our country. I deeply searched from a meaning to the war more than the 600,000 killed and that is the conclusion I came to, which I talked about in my 2nd Inaugural Address.

McKenzie (back, right)- Would you have really saved the Union without freeing any slaves? Answer- My mission was strictly to save the Union. Absolutely. If that is what I needed to do to save the Union, that's what I would have done.

Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.

Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.

Dallus- Why was it so hard for the Union to win battles at the start of the War? Were Lee and the other Southern generals that superior? Answer- The South had better generals at the start of the war. I wanted Lee to lead the Union armies so when he didn't I knew we lost one of the of the best generals around.

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

Ben

Maria

Sazeeda