Abraham Lincoln, Racist - NYTimes.com

If you look at many of his political decisions he was a very practical man and shared the racism of most of the white population of the US in that period. One of the big ideas back during the Civil War seemed to be shipping the freed slaves back to Africa.

"More problematic were Lincoln’s views on race. He held opinions not very different from those of the majority of his racist countrymen. Even if slavery was wrong, 'there is a physical difference between the white and black races that will for ever forbid the two races from living together on terms of social and political equality.' His solution was a form of ethnic cleansing: shipping blacks off to Liberia, or Haiti, or Central America — anywhere as long as it wasn’t the United States." from the above linked NYTimes article.