The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-11-20
A TEXT FIT FOR The TIMES
LINCOLN AND THE DECLARE
TON OF INDEPENDENCE.
An Extract From His Great Speech at

An Extract From His Great Speech at
BeardstowD, IiIIBo OILS. in 1855.
Before passing to later events in Mr..
Lincoln's life it is proper to include in
this chapter. as a specimen of his
oratory at this time, his eloquent ref
erence to the Declaration of Independ
ence found in a speech delivered at
BeardstoWn, ILL.,, August IL, 1858, and
not at Lewiston five days later, as
many biographers have it. Aside from
its concise reasoning, the sublime
thought it suggests entities it to rank
beside that great masterpiece, his
Gettysburg address. After alluding to
the suppression by the fathers of the
republic of the slave trade. he says
'These by their representatives in
old independence hall said to the whole
race of men, We hold these truths to
be self-evident; that all men are treat
ed equal; that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain inalienable
rights; that among these are life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness
This was their majestic Interpretation
of the economy of the universe. This
was their lofty, and wise, and noble
understanding Of the justice of the
Creator to his creatures-yes, gentle
men, to all his creatures, to the whole
great family of man. In their en-
lighted belief, nothing stamped with the
divine image and likeness was sent
into the world to be trodden on and de-
graded and imbruted by it's fellows
They grasped not only the whole race
of men then living, but they reached
forward and seized upon the farthest
posterity. 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. Wise statesmen as they were,
they knew the tendency of prosperity
to breed tyrants, and so they establish
ed these great self-evident truths, that
when in the distant future some man,
some faction some interest, should set
up the doctrine that none but rich men
none but white men, or none but An
glo-Saxon white men were entitled to
life, liberty and the pursuit of happi-
ness, their posterity might look up
again to the Declaration of Independ-
ence and take courage to renew the
battle which their fathers began, so
that truth and Justice and mercy and
all the humane and Christian virture
might not be extinguished from the
land; SO that no man would hereafter
dare to limit and circumscribe the
great principles on which the temple of
liberty was being built.
''Now, my countrymen, If you have
been taught doctrines conflicting with
the great landmarks of the Declaration
of independence; if you have listened
to suggestions which would take away
from it's grandeur and mutilate the fair
symmetry of its proportions; llt you
have been inclined to believe that il
men are not created equal in those in
alienable rights enumerated by our
chart of liberty, let me entreat you to
come back. Return to the fountain
whose waters spring close by the blood
Of the Revolution. 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 Dec
laration of Independence. You may do
anything with me you choose, if you
will but heed these sacred principles.
You may not only defeat me for the
senate, but you may take me and put
me to death. While pretending no IN
difference to earthly honors, do claim
to be actuated In this contest by some
thing higher than an anxiety for office.
I charge you to drop every paltry and
insignificant thought for any mans
success. 1t is nothing; am nothing;
Judge Douglas is nothing. But do not
destroy that immortal emblem of hui
manity-the Declaration of American
since the old days and the old-timer
Independence" -Herndon's Life of Lin
coin.