They erected a beacon to guide their children, and their children’s children, and the countless myriads who should inhabit the earth in other ages. They grasped not only the whole race of man then living, but they reached forward and seized upon the farthest posterity. In their enlightened belief, nothing stamped with the Divine image and likeness was sent into the world to be trodden on, and degraded, and imbruted by its fellows. Yes, gentlemen, to all His creatures, to the whole great family of man. This was their lofty, wise, and noble understanding of the justice of the Creator to His creatures. This was their majestic interpretation of the economy of the Universe. We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These communities, by their representatives in old Independence Hall, said to the whole world of men: The Declaration…was formed by the representatives of American liberty from thirteen States. You may do anything with me you choose, if you will but heed these sacred principles.
Think nothing of me – take no thought for the political fate of any man whomsoever – but come back to the truths that are in the Declaration of Independence.
Return to the fountain whose waters spring close by the blood of the revolution. “My countrymen, if you have been taught doctrines conflict with the great landmarks of the Declaration of Independence if you have listened to suggestions which would take away from its grandeur and mutilate the fair symmetry of its proportions if you have been inclined to believe that all men are not created equal in those inalienable rights enumerated in our charter of liberty, let me entreat you to come back. Lincoln on the Declaration of Independence But after reading it, and thinking about it, I’m convinced there’s no better message I can share this Independence Day. I myself had never heard of it until someone shared it with me. Not many Americans know about this speech today. Concerned that people had forgotten what the Declaration said, he decided to remind them. In the summer of 1858, Lincoln gave a speech in Lewiston, Illinois. Lincoln made it the core of his political vision, referencing it often in speeches and letters, most notably in the Gettysburg Address.īut it was five years earlier that Lincoln spoke some of the most powerful words ever uttered about our nation’s founding document. It was the foundation upon which the United States was built. To him, it was a statement of human rights. As a young prairie lawyer, Lincoln saw it as more than just a simple announcement of separation. It wasn’t until Abraham Lincoln that the Declaration took its place as the cornerstone of American ideals. In fact, to many, the Declaration was merely a simple letter that had served its purpose. It was a document that would change the world, but after the Revolutionary War ended, it languished in relative obscurity for many years.
Almost two-and-a-half centuries ago, fifty-six great Americans signed the Declaration of Independence.
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