Quote #29

And this issue embraces more than the fate of these United States. It presents to the whole family of man the question whether a constitutional republic or democracy - a government of the people by the same people - can or cannot maintain its territorial integrity against its own domestic foes.

More from Abraham Lincoln

  1. Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Governme…
  2. This is essentially a people's contest. On the side of the Union it is a struggle for maintaining in the world that form and substance of g…
  3. Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it alone where it is, because that much is due to the necessity arising from its act…
  4. Our popular government has often been called an experiment. Two points in it our people have already settled - the successful establishing …
  5. An inspection of the Constitution will show that the right of property in a slave is not 'distinctly and expressly affirmed' in it.
  6. It was with the deepest regret that the Executive found the duty of employing the war-power, in defence of the government, forced upon him.…
  7. We know, Southern men declare that their slaves are better off than hired laborers amongst us. How little they know, whereof they speak! Th…
  8. Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first exist…

All Abraham Lincoln quotes