Political Quotes

“Mr. President, in a message to Congress on July 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln wrote that the leading object of government was to ``elevate the condition of men, to lift artificial weights from all 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.'' It is no coincidence that he gave this message on the anniversary of our Nation's birth. Lincoln was echoing the profound legacy of our founding--a legacy that shaped our Nation and thereafter rippled across not only the Western Hemisphere but the entire world. When the Founders broke off from the yoke of British tyranny, they declared all men to be endowed with certain inalienable rights--rights that come not from the State, a church, any man or woman, or even from a government, but, rather, from God himself. The first of these inalienable rights was life. Never was any nation in the history of human beings born of a higher principle or a deeper connection to human happiness and flourishing. Here, the people would rule. Here, government would serve the people and not the other way around. Here, for the first time ever, each person, no matter his or her station in life, was endowed with these rights and entitled to their equal protection. Today, 159 years since Lincoln's message to Congress and 244 years since the Founders' message to the world, here we stand sworn, still, to fulfill their promise.…”