The proposal to colonize freedmen outraged many opponents of slavery, who protested that the message “is thoroughly tinged with that colorphobia which has so long prevailed in Illinois,” and condemned Lincoln for “so laboring under colorphobia, as to make emancipation dependent on colonization.” The country’s leading opponent of colonization, William Lloyd Garrison, called the president “a man of very small caliber” who would do better “at his old business of splitting rails than at the head of a government like ours, especially in such a crisis.” He characterized the message as “wishy-washy,” “very feeble and rambling, and ridiculous as a State paper,” “weak and commonplace to a pitiable degree,” and scorned Lincoln’s “stupidity” and “imbecility.” The colonization proposal, he said, was “absurd and preposterous” and suggested that “Lincoln may colonize himself if he choose, but it is an impertinent act, on his part, to propose the getting rid of those who are as good as himself.”
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃