Thank you to Ed Pakiorek (above) you are about the only person who has fully read before and after that paragraph and has put Mr Lincoln's words into proper context. He was NOT a racist, and he is clearly qualifying the small minded fears the whites had about the blacks in this paragraph but most people are reading it out of context. As someone else said: to read racism into that speech taken out of context would be the opposite of virtually every other thing Lincoln ever said! He risked his life to abolish slavery...do you really think he would have that kind of attitude towards people he risked his life to free?? Get real....read the whole bit he said if you really want the truth...if you want to take his words out of context to justify your OWN small minds that is your deficit not Abe Lincoln's.