Ainda os escravos, a Libéria e Lincoln

Alguns têm defendido a presença americana por existir uma “relação especial” com a Libéria. E de facto, é especial.

A Libéria foi fundada em 1816 pela American Colonization Society (ACS) por donos de escravos, nomeadamente, Henry Clay, que Lincoln reverenciava como "o pai dos Whig principles" (nesta altura, defensores do mercantilismo e proteccionismo tarifário, acabando mesmo por ser uma das origens para o mal estar entre “Sul” e “Norte” e que teve o seu culminar na Guerra entre Estados, tendo o “Sul” defendido o direito à Secessão da União).

Lincoln também era membro desta sociedade, e defendeu o uso de impostos de Illinois para pagarem a deportação para fora deste Estado (ver Webb Garrison, The Lincoln No One Knows, p. 186).

No artigo “The GOP’s Liberian Connection”, de Thomas J. DiLorenzo:

“This was not a one-time flight of fancy for Lincoln. He first proposed deporting blacks to Liberia in an 1854 speech in Peoria, Illinois. In his July 6, 1852 eulogy to Henry Clay, delivered in Springfield, Illinois, Lincoln approvingly quoted Clay’s statement that "there is a moral fitness in the idea of returning to Africa her children," which would supposedly be "a single blessing to that most unfortunate" region. This statement by Clay was made twenty-five years ago, said Lincoln, but "every succeeding year has added strength to the hope of its realization. May it indeed be realized!" He continued to voice such sentiments well into his presidency.

While commenting on the Dred Scott decision five years later, on June 26, 1857, Lincoln offered one reason why he so favored "colonization": In his opinion, there was "a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all white people, to the idea of an indiscriminate amalgamation of the white and black races . . ."”