man or the Indian as the equal of the white man. I am opposed
to giving him a voice in the administration of the government. I
would extend to the Negro, and the Indian, and to all dependent
races every right, every privilege, and every immunity
consistent with the safety and welfare of the white races; but
equality they never should have, either political or social, or in
any other respect whatever.My friends, you see that the issues are distinctly drawn.^61
Textbook readers cannot see that the issues are distinctly drawn, however,
because even the newest textbooks give no hint of Douglas’s racism. Only one
book among all eighteen, American History, quotes Douglas on race: “Lincoln
‘thinks the Negro is his brother,’ the Little Giant sneered.” These six words in
one book, now out of print, among eighteen textbooks, hardly do justice to
Douglas on race.
Why do textbooks censor Douglas? Since they devote paragraphs to his
wardrobe, it cannot be for lack of space. To be sure, textbook authors rarely
quote anyone. But more particularly, the heroification process seems to be
operating again. Douglas’s words on race might make us think badly of him. So
let’s leave them out.
Compared to Douglas, Lincoln was an idealistic equalitarian, but in
southern Illinois, arguing with Douglas, he, too, expressed white supremacist
ideas. Thus, at the debate in Charleston he said, “I am not, nor ever have been
in favor of bringing about the social and political equality of the white and
black races [applause]—that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making
voters or jurors of Negroes.” Most textbook authors protect us from a racist
Lincoln. By so doing, they diminish students’ capacity to recognize racism as a
force in American life. For if Lincoln could be racist, then so might the rest of
us be. And if Lincoln could transcend racism, as he did on occasion, then so
might the rest of us.
During the Civil War, Northern Democrats countered the Republican charge
that they favored rebellion by professing to be the “white man’s party.” They
protested the government’s emancipation of slaves in the District of Columbia
and its diplomatic recognition of Haiti. They claimed Republicans had
“nothing except ‘nigger on the brain.’ ” They were enraged when the U.S. army
accepted African American recruits. And they made race a paramount factor in