Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1901-08-24
Origin of a Famous Phrase,

Mrs. Elizabeth A. Meriwether,
mother of the municipal ownership
candidate for mayor of ST. Louis, re-
Gently wrote an article for the St.
Louis Republic in which she traced
Lincoln'S famous phrase, ga govern
ment of the people, by the people and
for the people," back to the Wickliffe
Bible of 1924. 1t is interesting to
known the origin of that particular
phraSeology and space is gladly given
to the article.
The idea is an old one, for the doc
trine that the people are the source
of political power and that govern
mentS should be administered by them
and in their interests must have been
advocated for ages, even though not
clearly expressed. At this time when
contrary doctrine is showing sur
priSing strength in the United States
it is instructive to know who first
gave apt verbal expression to the doc
trine and still more important to
know how many still cherish and re-
we're it as a self-evident and eternal
truth. Mrs. Meriwhether says:
In his Gettysburg speech, Mr.. Lin
coin gave voice to the grand apothegm:
''ThiS is government of the peO-
pie, by the people and for the people. !"
In the February number of Review
of Reviews, Mr.. George Parker, late
consul at Birmingham, writes that he
thinks he has discovered the author
of that celebrated phrase. In book
published in London, England, in 1895,
Mr.. Parker found these words:
'"The American government is a
government OF the people and for the
people,"
beg leave to say to the consul at
Birmingham and to the editor of the
Review of Reviews that they will
have to go further back than 1895 to
find the originator of that saying. In
the preface to the old Wickliffe Bible,
published in 1924, are the words:
This bible is for the government
of the people, by the people and for
the people"
Since that bible was published,
number of persons in America have
used the phrase, and some in Europe.
In 1880, as Mr.. Lamon states, in
Switzerland, speaker declared:
'All the governments of SwitZer-
land (meaning the different cantonS)
must acknowledge that they are sim
ply all the people, by all the people
and for all the people"
In 1850, in public speech in B0S-
ton, Theodore Parker defined democ-
racy to be:
"A government of all the people, by
all the people and for all the people.
It is said the same words were used
in Massachusetts, convention by
Judge Joel Parker in 1853. (Lamon. J
When, standing as he did ON the
awful field at Gettysburg, all around
him the bloody ghosts of 5000 Amer
lean men SO recently slain, Mr. Lin
coin voiced those immortal words,
they struck the ear and the heart of
the world as never before. They seem
to have Slumbered through the years
from 1924 up to the nineteenth CEN
fury. Never again will they Slumber. |
Words have souls; the soul of those
words can never again sleep. Even |
though this country be made an en-
pire, even though despotS should come |
to sit where once Washington and |
Jefferson sat, still would those words |
live and breathe and go down the
ages an inspiration, a prophecy-more: |
a tocsin in the hearts of men, calling |
them to arms to fight again for the |
freedom which is their right.-Com- |
mOner.