Instead of war and conquest through blood and fire and rapine, we would give, upon this continent, peaceful homes to the free white man of the Caucasian race in that zone where he was placed by the God of Heaven, and to which he is adapted by the laws of his constitution, so would we give homes to the free colored men of African descent in the zone of his fathers. By the operation of peaceful causes, by no infringements on the rights of states or individuals, by no stretch of constitutional authority on the part of the federal government, and by no immense expenditure, we propose to gain all, and even more than all, the benefits and blessings which the conquest and annexation of all the West Indies, and of the whole tropical regions of America would bring to us, without any of the expense and trouble and dangers of conquering, holding and governing them; while to the hopes and reasonable expectations of every lover of his country and his race, is held out the only practical solution of the gravest problem presented to the American statesman to-day; the ultimate destiny of the Anglo-American and the Afro-American races in this new world, and such a solution as will bring homesteads, prosperity, happiness, and ultimate freedom to all.
--Wisconsin Senator James Doolittle, in a speech at Warsaw, New York, as recorded by the Janesville, Wisconsin, Weekly Gazette and Free Press of September 16, 1859. Also partially reprinted in Race and the Rise of the Republican Party, p. 256.
"[T]he free white man of the Caucasian race ... was placed by the God of Heaven" "upon this continent"?
To paraphrase Bill Watterson, I'm not sure what's more troubling: his grasp of history or his grasp of theology.
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