white people at the time who believed African Americans should have full equality. The quotation is from the 4th Lincoln-Douglas debate, which was held in Charleston. What follows it is quite interesting as well: "I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied every thing. 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. I am now in my fiftieth year, and I certainly never have had a black woman for either a slave or a wife. So it seems to me quite possible for us to get along without making either slaves or wives of negroes. I will add to this that I have never seen, to my knowledge, a man, woman or child who was in favor of producing a perfect equality, social and political, between negroes and white men." You've got it upside down. To the very last moment (spring 1865), Lincoln was seen by the radical Republicans as soft on slavery, and very non-absolutist. Can't remember the exact date in '65, but even then he said effectively that if South just gives up, US govt will buy all their slaves (and free them), as it'd be cheaper than running the war (which at the time was $4m per day, by some measures equivalent to 6bn