by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
- He was a consummate politician who spoke out of both sides of his mouth, saying one thing to one audience and the opposite to another.
- He was adamantly opposed to racial equality, actually using the words "superior and inferior" to describe the "appropriate" relation between the white and black races.
- He opposed giving blacks the right to vote, to serve on juries, or to intermarry with whites.
- He supported the legal rights of slave owners and pledged his support of a constitutional amendment that would have prohibited the federal government from ever interfering with Southern slavery.
- He was a mercantilist and a political tool of corrupt Northern business interests.
- He was a railroad industry lobbyist who championed corporate welfare.
- He once represented a slave owner in a case in which he sought to recover his runaway slaves. Lincoln lost the case and the slaves gained their freedom.
- He advocated sending all blacks back to Africa, Central America, or Haiti – anywhere but the U.S.
- He proposed strengthening the Fugitive Slave Law.
- He opposed the extension of slavery into the territories so that "free white people" would not have to associate with blacks or compete with them for jobs.
- He opposed black citizenship in Illinois and supported the state’s constitution which prohibited the emigration of black people into the state.
- He was the head of the Illinois Colonization Society, which advocated the use of state tax dollars to deport the small number of free blacks that resided within the state.
- He nullified the early emancipation of slaves in Missouri and Georgia early in the war.
- He sent troops to New York City to put down a draft riot by shooting hundreds of them in the streets.
- He was an enemy of free-market capitalism.
- He started a war over tax collection that ended up killing 620,000 Americans and wounding and maiming even more.
- He conjured up the spectacular lie that no such thing as state sovereignty ever existed to "justify" his invasion and conquest of the Southern states.
- He refused to meet with Confederate peace commissioners before the war to work out a peaceful compromise.
- He provoked the upper South – Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas and Tennessee – to secede by launching a military invasion of their sister states.
- He supported economic interventionism through protectionist tariffs, corporate welfare, and central banking that would plunder one section of the country (the South) for the benefit of his Northern political supporters.
- He started a war without the consent of Congress; illegally declared martial law; illegally blockaded Southern ports; illegally suspended habeas corpus and arrested tens of thousands of political opponents; illegally orchestrated the secession of West Virginia; shut down hundreds of opposition newspapers and imprisoned their editors and owners; deported the most outspoken member of the Democratic Party opposition, Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio; confiscated private property, including firearms; ignored the Ninth and Tenth Amendments; tolerated the arrest of ministers who refused to publicly pray for him; arrested duly elected members of the Maryland legislature as well as Congressman Henry May of Baltimore; and supported a law that indemnified federal officials from all of these illegal acts.
- He orchestrated the rigging of Northern elections.
- Introduced the slavery of conscription and income taxation.
- Censored all telegraph communication.
- Waged war on civilians by having his armies bomb Southern cities and destroy or steal crops, livestock and private property throughout the South.
- Created an enormous political patronage system that survives today.
- Allowed the unjust mass execution of Sioux Indians in Minnesota.
- Destroyed the system of federalism and states’ rights that was created by the founding fathers, thereby destroying the voluntary union.
- Promoted generals for their willingness to use troops as cannon fodder.
- Created an internal revenue bureaucracy that has never diminished in size and power.
In spite of all that, he's considered to be Mr. Wonderful by almost all Americans, thanks to Yankee propaganda. And to threaten their cherished myths by learning historical fact is utterly repugnant to them.
H/T to James in Alabany
