The sickening historical lie that Abraham Lincoln wasn't interested in abolishing black slavery.

[stevenleser]

3. I remember hearing some time ago about that part of that debate

I guess what everyone has to decide is which Lincoln do they think is the real one.

The one who made the quotes YoungDemCA posted in his OP or the one from the second of the Lincoln/Douglas debates.

I think the former. One thing I would exhort everyone to remember is that Lincoln was a politician. He acknowledged as much and he understood that sometimes he had to do what he needed to do to win.

In 1858 in a national election, saying you wanted to have full equality would likely have been electoral suicide. So should we not have had an abolitionist President because he was unwilling to say a few unfortunate things in a debate to try to prevent Douglas from demagoging him on the subject.