Abraham Lincoln was a Communist?

[Rustic]

Most of us probably don’t associate Abraham Lincoln with concepts like ethnic cleansing, but Honest Abe had one thing he wanted almost as much as a slavery-free America—an America that was completely and utterly devoid of black people.

For nearly his entire life, Lincoln supported—and, at times, was the driving force behind—a plan to round up every black person in the country and forcibly ship them to another one. This wasn’t just an idle wish, either. In 1863, Lincoln personally approved an order for freed slaves to be sent to remote colonies in Central and South America. A “test” shipment of 450 emancipated slaves was even dispatched to Haiti, where their new colony was devastated by smallpox and starvation and the survivors had to be rescued. As late as fall 1864, Lincoln still intended to go ahead with this plan in some form or another, believing that whites and blacks would never be able to live together as equals. It’s possible that he even held this less-than-enlightened position right up until the very end.

It turns out that old Abe wasn’t quite the saint everyone would have you believe. He still did some incredible things in his single term as president—it’s just a shame that he had to counterbalance them with some truly hideous mistakes.

 

[Rustic]

It wasn’t just Native Americans who got to experience death camps during the Lincoln years. Welcome to Camp Douglas—the sort of place for which the phrase “hell on Earth” was coined. If you were a Confederate troop during the grim years of 1862–65, there was a good chance you’d wind up there—and an equally high chance that you’d die soon after. Intended to house 6,000 prisoners, it usually held closer to 12,000, and such severe overcrowding had consequences.

There wasn’t enough food, so inmates were fed on spoiled meat and potatoes. Sanitation was nonexistent and a lack of sewers meant piles of waste built up, creating a haven for bacteria. Smallpox, malaria, and other diseases ran rife, killing dozens. Rainstorms would turn the camp into a fetid mud bath, while the winter would freeze inmates to death. Vermin had run of the place and the prison hospital was overflowing with the bodies of the sick and disabled.

It was Lincoln’s Guantanamo—a chamber of horrors on American soil that made a mockery of any claims of decency and justice. Although Jefferson Davis’ Confederacy oversaw equally brutal camps, Douglas remains a stain on Lincoln’s record as a place where ideals of hope and democracy went to die.

 

[Rustic]

General Joseph Hooker may not have been as comically incompetent as old Ambrose Burnside up there, but in his own special way, he was probably worse. Appointed to replace Burnside after the Mud March, he was so obviously unsuitable for command that Lincoln personally wrote him a lettertelling him as much—an odd move, given that it was Lincoln who’d made the appointment. Within months of getting the gig, Hooker had already ratcheted up a decisive defeat—sending his troops into the hellish Battle of Chancellorsville.

By rights, this should have been an easy Union victory. Lee’s army of 60,000 was spread thin and facing a Yankee force of over 130,000 men. Instead, Lee’s military genius and Hooker’s complete lack of it combined to create a Union slaughter. 17,000 Yankee troops were killed or wounded, 5,000 more than during the nightmare of Fredericksburg. When Lee’s victorious troops subsequently made a dash for Pennsylvania, Hooker completely failed to stop or counter them and wasted valuable time focusing on the Confederate capital instead of giving chase. Finally, on the eve of the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln removed him from his post—the first smart move he made in nine months of hiring idiots.

 

[Rustic]

The Worst President of The United States | Connor's Conundrums

A good read

 

[Unkotare]

Lincoln was not a socialist. If you need a political/economic/philosophic theory to describe him, Utilitarian with an underpinning of Kantian ethics is a more appropriate description.

 

[MaryL]

Lincoln was a Republican. Ended slavery.

 

[Rustic]

Lincoln was a Republican. Ended slavery.

The figurehead that did...

 

[MaryL]

Lincoln was a Republican. Ended slavery.

The figurehead that did...

So what figure head do you think is gonna fix things? Bernie or Donald?

 

[Rustic]

Lincoln was a Republican. Ended slavery.

The figurehead that did...

So what figure head do you think is gonna fix things? Bernie or Donald?

Certainly not a career politician... Maybe it's time to give someone else a try??

 

[regent]

If there had been no Lincoln and no Civil War when would slavery in America have ended?

 

[WildBillKelsoe]

A worker being entitled to the fruits of his own labor is nowhere close to being communism.

 

[whitehall]

You can't judge 19th century politicians by 21st century standards. If anything, Lincoln was a nice guy lawyer with the gift of gab who was in politics way over his head. Lincoln didn't hold the Nation together. His incompetence caused the Nation to split apart at the cost of most of it's smartest and bravest on both sides. Slavery was a dying institution at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Lincoln should have held the Nation together with compromise and political skill and freaking lies if that's what it took to keep brothers from taking up arms against each other. He failed miserably.

 

[regent]

I think Republicans are getting ready to re-label Lincoln a Democrat, and not a Republican. They have been having some success at relabeling political ideologies and seem to be working toward changing political labels on individuals. We can expect a re-label job on Teddy Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover pretty soon.

 

[konradv]

You can't judge 19th century politicians by 21st century standards. If anything, Lincoln was a nice guy lawyer with the gift of gab who was in politics way over his head. Lincoln didn't hold the Nation together. His incompetence caused the Nation to split apart at the cost of most of it's smartest and bravest on both sides. Slavery was a dying institution at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Lincoln should have held the Nation together with compromise and political skill and freaking lies if that's what it took to keep brothers from taking up arms against each other. He failed miserably.

He tried, but was faced with intransigence and unwillingness to compromise. Where have I heard that before?!?! His political heirs have taken up the mantle of his political enemies.