He regarded the Union as the "last, best hope on earth" for a government "dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Accordingly, he did his utmost to preserve the Union and to end what he regarded as the greatest imperfection of that Union: Negro slavery. To this way of thinking, Lincoln fought for the universal human rights proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence. Precisely illustrating the fallacy that Fueter had in mind, many have viewed Lincoln from the standpoint of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s. Few historical issues show the salience of Fueter's dictum as well as the interpretation of Abraham Lincoln's politics. The Swiss scholar Eduard Fueter once observed that every historian must decide whether he wishes to write from the perspective of his own time, or from the perspective of those whom he is studying. 4 (Winter 2000)įORCED INTO GLORY: ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S WHITE DREAM
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