His successor in the leadership has written the word "white" before men, making it read "all white men are created equal." Pray, will or may not the Know-nothings, if they should get in power, add the word "protestant," making it read "all protestant white men"?
Lincoln uses a rhetorical question to expose the dangerous precedent of limiting the Declaration of Independence's principle of equality to specific groups.
Share
More from Abraham Lincoln
If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything.
He said, with a great deal of emphasis, and with an expression of countenance I shall never forget: "When a man is sincerely penitent for his misdeeds, and gives satisfactory evidence of the same, he can safely be pardoned, and there is no…
the President directs that from and after this date the order above referred to requiring passports shall be modified, and so much thereof as relates to persons entering this country from Canada shall be rescinded, saving and reserving the…
Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
Other voices in this conversation
