In reference to you, colored people, let me say God has made you free. Although you have been deprived of your God-given rights by your so-called 'masters', you are now as free as I am, and if those that claim to be your 'superiors' do not know that you are free, take the sword and bayonet and teach them that you are; for God created all men free, giving to each the same rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "In reference to you, colored people, let me say God has made you free. Although you have been deprived of your God-given rights by your so-called 'masters', you are now as free as I am, and if those that claim to be your 'superiors' do not know that you are free, take the sword and bayonet and teach them that you are; for God created all men free, giving to each the same rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." in the context of "Abraham Lincoln, speech to freed slaves in Richmond, Virginia (4 April 1865), as quoted in Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln (1996), by Don Edward Fehrenbacher and Virginia Fehrenbacher, editor, p. 257." to mean that wisdom is timeless.