Quote #30

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 government whose leading object is to elevate the condition of men - to lift artificial weights from their shoulders; to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all; to afford all an unfettered start, and a fair chance in the race of life. Yielding to partial and temporary departures, from necessity, this is the leading object of the government for whose existence we contend.

More from Abraham Lincoln

  1. And this issue embraces more than the fate of these United States. It presents to the whole family of man the question whether a constituti…
  2. Our popular government has often been called an experiment. Two points in it our people have already settled - the successful establishing …
  3. Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Governme…
  4. 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.…
  5. 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…
  6. 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…
  7. An inspection of the Constitution will show that the right of property in a slave is not 'distinctly and expressly affirmed' in it.
  8. I am a patient man - always willing to forgive on the Christian terms of repentance; and also to give ample time for repentance. Still I mu…

All Abraham Lincoln quotes