Our ancestors.

Almost all white men of his day were racists; that is ineluctable fact (the only clear exception would seem to be John Brown himself, peace be upon him). However, Lincoln was an abolitionist. While he may never have recognized that a black man might be his equal before God, he at least recognized that no man should be owned by another.

To southerners the election’s most ominous feature was the magnitude of Republican victory north of the 41st parallel. Lincoln won more than 60 percent of the vote in that region, losing scarcely two dozen counties. Three-quarters of the Republican congressmen and senators in the next Congress would represent this “Yankee” and antislavery portion of the free states. These facts were “full of portentous significance” declared the New Orleans Crescent. “The idle canvas prattle about Northern conservatism may now be dismissed,” agreed the Richmond Examiner. “A party founded on the single sentiment … of hatred of African slavery, is now the controlling power.” No one could any longer “be deluded … that the Black Republican party is a moderate” party, pronounced the New Orleans Delta. “It is in fact, essentially, a revolutionary party.

–Civil War Historian James McPherson (as quoted in Wikipedia)

In passing, do please note that the support of slavery was considered conservatism in its time; and never forget that today’s “conservatives” are not so far different from Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens.

Thanks again.