Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln: The Lawyer-Statesman The attitude of the great President toward the Southern States throughout the Civil War, and in relation to the reconstruction of state governments in them, was always friendly. He sought to aid and encourage those States to reestablish themselves as members of the Union. He was never inclined to force negro suffrage upon them, but believed that the States should be left free to grant or withhold the right of suffrage as each State might determine for itself. The facts clearly prove that Mr. Lincoln was opposed to the system which has become known as carpet-bag Government, but believed that the loyal white citizens of every State should be allowed to control its political affairs. It has been said that he favored woman's suffrage also, but there is not sufficient evidence to warrant this conclusion, as will be seen from a perusal of these pages. Lincoln's criticism of the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Dred Scott vs. Sanford, has been often referred to in recent years as a justification for assaults upon the courts, but a careful review of all that he said upon that subject shows that he was a firm believer in and champion of the independence of the judiciary. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.