Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| NUMBER: | 1702 |
| AUTHOR: | Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) |
| QUOTATION: | I do not understand that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. My understanding is that I can just let her alone. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Lincoln used similar wording in a speech in Springfield, Illinois, June 26, 1857: “Now I protest against that counterfeit logic which concludes that, because I do not want a black woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. I need not have her for either. I can just leave her alone.”—Collected Works, vol. 2, p. 405 (1953). |
| SUBJECTS: | Slavery |