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.
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I am considering, and shall not fail to act when satisfied that action will be proper.
Grant that he desires the elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by saving the already advanced steps towards it, than by running backward over them?
Unlike a case of war between independent nations, there is no organized organ for us to treat with,--no one man has authority to give up the rebellion for any other man.
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