'If A can prove
however conclusively that he may of right enslave B why may not B snatch the
argument and prove equally that he may enslave A? You say A is white and B is
black. It is color then, the lighter having the right to enslave the darker?
Take care. By this rule you are to be a slave to the first man you meet with a
fairer skin than your own. You do not mean color exactly? You mean the whites
are intellectually the superiors of the blacks and therefore have the right to
enslave them? Take care again. By this rule you are to be the slave to the
first man you meet with an intellect superior to your own. But say you it is a
question of interest; and if you can make it your interest you have the right
to enslave another. Very well. And if he can make it his interest he has the
right to enslave you.'
- Abraham Lincoln
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