When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty--to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy....
In a letter to Joshua Speed, Lincoln declares his preference for pure despotism over hypocritical claims of liberty if American equality is corrupted.
Share
More from Abraham Lincoln
Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.
Whereas for some time past evil-disposed persons have crossed the borders of the United States or entered their ports by sea from countries where they are tolerated, and have committed capital felonies against the property and life of…
I do the very best I know how--the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end.
Other voices in this conversation
