Was Lincoln a communist?

Question

I don't think he was a communist even though he did have correspondence with Karl Marx. I do, however, think him and his Radical Republican Party of the northeast were the left-wingers of their generation.
------------
FROM A NEO-CONFEDERATE/CONSERVATIVE WEBSITE

Regardless of how "conservative" the Republican Party may or may not be, it is easy to forget that there was a time when the Party was far from conservative, that in the early days of the party, socialists and outright communists played an active role. In fact, it can and will be argued here that the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 was made possible by communists and socialists, most of them German immigrants in the Midwest, and indeed the prosecution of the War depended in large part on those same alien people. Consider, for example, the following.

Union General Franz Sigel had been a leader in the communist Revolution of 1848, a revolution fought to destroy the individual state governments of Germany, and forciby unite them under an all-powerful central, socialist government. Thanks to some inept leadership, part of it provided by the young Sigel, that revolution failed and Sigel, along with thousands of other "forty-eighters," fled Europe for America, bringing their revolutionary socialist ideas with them. During the War, his troops declared "I fights mit Sigel." After his diastrous retreat at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, a Confederate song made fun of Sigel and his Hessian troops this way:

But now I march mit musket out
To save dot yankee eagle
Dey dress me up in soldier clothes
To go and fight mit Sigel.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Massachusetts Yankee transcendentalist and hater of the South, wrote so approvingly of Sigel and his countrymen: "This revolution has a feature new to history, that of socialism."

MORE RIGHT HERE
http://www.confederateamericanpride.com/LincolnPutsch.html

Delphi,

Back during the 1860s, the Republican party was filled with radicals from the liberal northeast and the Democrats were filled with conservative state right activist from the South.

The parties started to switch in 1964 when the choice was between liberal Democrat LBJ who supported civil rights and conservative Republican Barry Goldwater who opposed them.

Guess which side the South voted?

lcmc,

I didn't say Lincoln was a communist. I said some conservatives/confederates thought he was. I point this out because there are some clueless conservatives who sincerely believe the Republican Party was always synonymous with conservatism and the South.

Answer 1

Ah...Trovee...you're back, and spewing the same unsupported nonsense, as always.

Lincoln never met nor corresponded with Seigel. In fact, Sigel was sacked by Lincoln's military chief, General Halleck. Your Lincoln-Sigel link is pure nonsense. When calling it up, it plays Dixie.

Lincoln did not "have correspondence" with Marx. The International Working Men's Association wrote to Lincoln when he was re-elected, but there is no evidence that Lincoln wrote *ANYTHING* back. Ambassador Charles Francis Adams wrote back to the Union, acknowledging their letter, but nothing more. So, for you, that's strike two.

Finally, an opinion of Ralph Waldo Emerson...well...has nothing to do with Lincoln.

Once again, Trovee...strike three for you.

Answer 2

No, I don't think Lincoln was a Communist. Marxism was a theory in those days. The Prussians were militaristic and responsible for the conquoring and subsequent unification of the German states into one empire. No evidence exists, to my knowledge, of whether the Mid-West Germans were socialists. Certainly my Mid-West German ancestors were not. Most were here because they didn't like what was going on over there. One such ancestor was a German Baron from the state of Wurtemberg. He left with his wife and 9 childeren to be a dirt farmer in Nebraska to avoid Prussian rule. He certainly was not Marxist nor Socialist.

Answer 3

I am not Southern i am a proud resident of Michigan and a American Citizen and from the lower part of Michigan i grew up with many African Americans and by no means do i have any animostiy towards them.
Yes it is wrong that Republicans be Synomonous with KKK, South, White trash.

Answer 4

Alot of political groups try and make most presidents in the past in communists when most were free masons. It's just a way to throw up some political dirt to get people like you upset and interested in their group.

Answer 5

I have never head anything anywhere that would indicate he was a communist. His speeches certainly do no indicate this. What is the purpose of trying to besmirch his name when you know he was not. It's true that the parties were completely different 150 years ago from what they are now, but how do you leap to communism from that?

Answer 6

Well, if he was a commie, then he should have been a democrat!

Your missing my point. I'm pointing out the fact that democrats are communists. So technically, the commies from "back then" survived. Why do you really care about all of this anyway? It was over 200 years ago. Seriously.

Answer 7

Who gives a s**t !

Answer 8

have you ever thought about getting a hobby?