It looked so fiendishly selfish, so like throwing fathers and brothers overboard to lighten the boat for our security, that the noble-minded shrank from the manifest meanness of the thing.
On the recordFebruary 22, 1842
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gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
In a speech on temperance, Lincoln condemns a selfish approach, likening it to abandoning family for personal security, which noble individuals would reject.
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