The Lemon Fool

http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lin ... /speed.htm

The above link is to a website listing Abraham Lincoln's speeches and writings online, and this is the content of a private letter he wrote to a friend, in 1855.

The penultimate paragraph reads as follows:
"Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except negroes" When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics." When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty -- to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy [sic]."

Plus ça change...

Replace Catholics with Muslims and that pretty much sums up the state of affairs in the US today. Sadly the "Know-Nothings" have access to Google and Facebook, and are consequently under the delusion that they know everything...

I can see Lincoln's point about Russia - for a long time we lived in Egypt (pre-2011 revolution) and people there accepted that their government was despotic, self-serving and inept, and got on with their lives accordingly, largely organising civil society through traditional family, religious and other non-official ways (although the "organisation" might not have been readily apparent to the casual visitor!)

Yes, the history of the civil war is often taught as if it was a moral crusade against slavery when the reality is that it was really about States' rights. This is perhaps shown most clearly in another one of Lincoln's letters, to Horace Greely, the then editor of the New York Tribune, which includes this phrase:

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union"

https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/li ... reeley.htm

The civil war was about the conflict between central government and local autonomy - a much more common problem that still persists now in battles over abortion, gun control, same sex marriage and so on. Slavery was just the pretext, but the injection of race into any debate always inflames the parties and the passion, not always productively.

As for subjecting airline passengers to extra scrutiny based on race, El Al have been doing that for decades. Kuwait Airlines won't carry anyone with an Israeli passport. This is not a new thing.