Lincoln publicly voiced racist views as a matter of political expediency.

Evidence

Abraham Lincoln came of age politically in one of these states. As a young Illinois politician, he held both racist and anti-slavery views. He expressed the former and dulled the latter when it suited him politically. During his senatorial bid against Stephen Douglas in 1858, Lincoln appeased the racist ideas of Illinois voters by announcing, “I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the black and white races—that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people.” In the same speech, Lincoln expressed a belief in “a physical difference between the white and black races” that would “forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.” — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1266

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the Wilentz-letter style dispute over whether Lincoln belongs to the white-savior or the flawed-antiracist narrative; this is the raw material historians contest.