...racial amalgamation by stating simply enough, "I do not understand that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. My understanding is that I can just let her alone."34 But Douglas never shied away from the race card,...

...still thought slavery was wrong. And he noted, "I do not understand that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife." (This to cheers and laughter.) Still, it was an uphill battle for Lincoln. And at the end of the day,...

...position the negro should be denied everything. I do not understand that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. [Cheers and laughter.] My understanding is that I can just let her alone. 1 am now in my fiftieth year,...

...concerning himself and a hypothetical black woman: "I do not understand that because I do not want a Negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife." In one sentence, he addressed race, sexuality, and slavery. All were wrapped together in the dynamic...

...position the negro should be denied everything. I do not understand that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. [Cheers and laughter.] My understanding is that I can just let her alone. I am now in my fiftieth year,...

...yes to Negro freedom but no to Negro equality: I do not understand that because I do not want a Negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife [cheers and laughter]. ... I will to the very last stand by the law of this state, which forbids the...

...right to freedom but do not have a right to be citizens of the United States: "I protest against that counterfeit logic which concludes that, because I...have her for either, I can just leave her alone." Lincoln, "Speech at Springfield, Illinois," June 26, 1857, in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln,...

...inferior races, that they wanted to vote, eat, sleep, and marry with negroes. Lincoln rejected "that logic which concludes that because I do not want a...a slave, I must necessarily want her for a wife." The authors of the Declaration of Independence never intended, "to say that all were equal in color,...

...will see. But he referred to a black woman to illustrate the kind of equality in which he did believe: 'In some respects she certainly is not my equal; but in her natural right to eat the bread she earns with her own hand without asking the leave of anyone else, she is my equal, and the equal...

...Lincoln tried humorously to deflect the attacks. "I do not understand that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife," he jested at the next debate in Charleston, but Douglas's barbs hit their mark. Lincoln was reduced...