Abraham Lincoln Quotes

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And this issue embraces more than the fate of these United States. It presents to the whole family of man the question whether a constitutional republic, or democracy — a government of the people by the same people — can or can not maintain its territorial integrity against its own domestic foes. It presents the question whether discontented individuals, too few in numbers to control administration according to organic law in any case, can always, upon the pretenses made in this case, or on any other pretenses, or arbitrarily without any pretense, break up their government, and thus practically put an end to free government upon the earth. It forces us to ask, Is there in all republics this inherent and fatal weakness? Must a government of necessity be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?

Quote Source Information

• Source: Wikiquote: "Abraham Lincoln" (Quotes, 1860s, Fourth of July Address to Congress (1861):
Address to Congress (4 July 1861)
Between the fall of Fort Sumter on April 13, 1861, and July of that same year, President Abraham Lincoln took a number of actions without Congressional approval including the suspension of Habeas corpus. Lincoln did these actions in response to secession by eleven southern slave states which declared their secession from the United States in response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States and formed the Confederate States of America. In his address to Congress, Lincoln asks Congress to validate his actions by authorizing them after the fact. This address also marks Lincoln's first full explanation of the purpose of the war as "a struggle for maintaining in the world that form and substance of government whose leading object is 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" and the "successful maintenance [of this government] against a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it.")

About this Picture

Name: Government-Vedder-Highsmith-detail-1

Summary:

Description: English: Detail from Government. Mural by Elihu Vedder. Lobby to Main Reading Room, Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C. Main figure is seated atop a pedestal saying "GOVERNMENT" and holding a tablet saying "A GOVERNMENT / OF THE PEOPLE / BY THE PEOPLE / FOR THE PEOPLE". Artist's signature is "ELIHU VEDDER / ROMA–1896".

Date: 1896

Source: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-highsm-02036 (original digital file), uncompressed archival TIFF version (76 MB), cropped and converted to JPEG with the GIMP 2.4.5, image quality 88.

Author: Artist is Elihu Vedder (1836–1923). Photographed 2007 by Carol Highsmith (1946–), who explicitly placed the photograph in the public domain.

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