Part of an ADDRESS OF WILLIAM L. HARRIS.
William Harris was a native Georgian and graduate of the University of Georgia who had moved to Mississippi in 1837. He had served as a circuit court judge, and was elected to Mississippi's highest court, the High Court of Errors and Appeals, in 1858. He was appointed a commissioner to the State of Georgia by Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus. In this capacity he delivered the following address to the Georgia General Assembly, on December 17, 1860. The speech was published in pamphlet form as Address of Hon. W. L. Harris, Commissioner from the State of Mississippi, Delivered before the General Assembly of the State of Georgia on Monday, Dec. 17th, 1860
"Our fathers made this a government for the white man, rejecting the negro, as an ignorant, inferior, barbarian race, incapable of self-government, and not, therefore, entitled to be associated with the white man upon terms of civil, political, or social equality."
The entire address is HERE
Part of a statement by Abe Lincoln -
“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races – that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."
