Agreed. Much of that was campaign rhetoric. That being said though, he was a product of his era and probably did share a lot of the prevelant views on racial superiority, views that softened and diminished through exposure and experience. It is interesting to read Frederick Douglas's comments regarding Lincoln - mad as a wet hen over the lack of progress on emancipation and then highly complimentary with each successive step in that direction. The way he speaks of his meetings with Lincoln, it seems as though Lincoln, while perhaps not the picture of color-blindness, moved well ahead of the curve by 19th century standards.