The speech took place during the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Lincoln presents his views within the context of a fellow in town who wanted to know if he was in favor of perfect equality among the races like Douglas had been saying he was. Lincoln's Charleston Debate speech lays out his views on racial equality in 1858. I take him at his word.

However, by 1863 what has happened to those views? They have evolved. 180,000 African Americans served in the Union ranks, he met Frederick Douglass, he has reflected on the meaning of the Declaration of Independence and the meaning of the American Civil War. I take him at his word at Gettysburg when he says the nation can have "a new birth of freedom." I take him at his word on April 11, 1865 when he advocates giving African Americans the right to vote.