Wickliffe Kitchell to Abraham Lincoln, 14 June 18581
Hillsboro June 14th 1858Hon. A Lincoln Dear SirI have long and fearfully thought on the subject of Negro Slavery— and have concluded
that the only effectual mean is to entirely separate the races. The white race ever
has degenerated in all their connections with the black– One half millions of mulattoes
are now living evidences of the white mans degeneracy– Negro Slavery is a personal wrong a personal misfortune— a national
evil and a local curse— and the sooner removed the better for the master– One Cent^u^ry more may blend their colors and place on an equality with their masters–. Cannot
the wisdom of the nation devise some means to remove them with their own consent and
the consent of their masters– Cannot the principals of the African colonization be
extended to Central or South America or both. I am quite an advocate of the propositions of Mr Thayer and Mr Blair of the present Congress2 Would it not be proper for our Republican convention now at Springfield to adopt a resolution— something like this Vz[Viz]—Resolved that we are in favour of an entire separation of the black and white races by mutual consent and that
the blacks be colonized some where without this Union under the patronage of our National Government— — and further
I would sudjest the propriety of a resolution in favour of common schools— advocating the general diffusion of knowledge by a scientific
education of the rich and the poor alike throughout the State ^and Union^– The first may remove a great national evil and the second produce a great national
good— and both just proper and popular measures—for which the State and the Union
may with propriety make liberal appropriations– If these ideas meet your approbation
you may have an opportunity to recommend them to our friends in the convention3
I am very respectfully Your FriendW Kitchell
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[Envelope]
Hon. A. LincolnSpringfieldIlls4
2Eli Thayer and Francis P. Blair, Jr. were both members of the Thirty-Fifth Congress of the United States at the time
of this letter. On January 7, 1858, in a speech he gave in the U.S. House of Representatives, Thayer argued that the U.S. should “Americanize” Central America via “organized
emigration.” One week later, Blair delivered an address in the U.S. House advocating
for the U.S. to acquire territory in either Central or South America and colonize
it with free African Americans and emancipated enslaved persons.
Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1996
(Alexandria, VA: CQ Staff Directories, 1997), 669, 1933; Cong. Globe, 35th Cong., 1st Sess., 227-29, 293-98 (1858).
3If Lincoln replied to this letter, his response has not been located.
Lincoln’s personal views on colonization evolved over time. For a while, he endorsed
Henry Clay’s view that immediate abolition was impractical, gradual emancipation preferred, and that voluntary transportation
of free African Americans to Africa provided a reasonable solution. From 1854 to late-1862, Lincoln occasionally supported
schemes to relocate free African Americans to Liberia or other locations as a starting point for colonization efforts. He hoped that Southern
whites would, over time, grow more willing to emancipate enslaved persons once they
saw that they would not remain within the U.S. He also hoped that more Northerners
would support emancipation when they saw that the emancipated would not remain in
the country to compete with white laborers. And he hoped that colonization could
demonstrate that Black persons were capable of governing themselves and being self-sufficient.
Colonization was controversial among Republicans, and, despite some parallels between
Kitchell's and Lincoln’s views on the subject, none of the resolutions nor the formal
declaration of principles adopted by delegates to the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention
made reference to colonization. The delegates also did not pass any resolutions
related to scientific education in the state.
David Herbert Donald, Lincoln (New York: Touchstone, 1995), 165-67; James Oakes, The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution (New York: W. W. Norton, 2021), 128-29; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 17 June 1858, 2:2-5.
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).