Lincoln as Abolitionist (16)

Continuing with Frederick Douglass' story:

Like a mountain pine high above all others, Mr. Lincoln stood, in his grand simplicity, and home-like beauty. Recognizing me, even before I reached him, he exclaimed, so that all around could hear him, "Here comes my friend Douglass." Taking me by the hand, he said, "I am glad to see you. I saw you in the crowd to-day, listening to my inaugural address; how did you like it?" I said, "Mr. Lincoln, I must not detain you with my poor opinion, when there are thousands waiting to shake hands with you." "No, no," he said, "you must stop a little, Douglass; there is no man in the country whose opinion I value more than yours. I want to know what you think of it?" I replied, "Mr. Lincoln, that was a sacred effort." "I am glad you liked it!" he said, and I passed on, feeling that any man, however distinguished, might well regard himself honored by such expressions, from such a man.

No such scene was ever enacted at Jefferson Davis' capital in Richmond.

So much has been written about Lincoln, I'm sure that every line in Dwight Lowell Dumond's 1939 defense of Lincoln as an abolitionist could be modified, qualified, expanded and argued over at great length. But his essential argument is correct. Abraham Lincoln will always be remembered as an enemy of slavery.

And his title of the Great Emancipator was a well-deserved one.