refers to the Declaration of Independence in a speech he delivered at Springfield, Illinois:

"My declaration upon this subject of negro slavery may be misrepresented, but cannot be misunderstood. I have said that I do not understand the Declaration to mean that all men were created equal in all respects. They are not our equal in color; but I suppose that it does mean to declare that all men are equal in some respects; they are equal in their right to 'life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' Certainly the negro is not our equal in color,—perhaps not in many other respects; still, in the right to put into his mouth the bread that his own hands have earned, he is the equal of every other man, white or black. In pointing out that more has been given you, you cannot be justified in taking away the little which has been given him. All I ask for the negro is that if you do not like him, let him alone. If God gave him but little, that little let him enjoy."

Throughout the Douglas-Lincoln debates in the campaign for the United States senatorship, reference to which is made in another chapter, Lincoln was declaring and defining the doctrines of the Declaration of Independence as written by Jefferson, and adopted by the Federal Congress, while Douglas was endeavoring to restrict the meaning so as to apply only to white men or English subjects. A typical illustration from these debates, as bearing upon the Declaration of Independence, as understood by Lincoln, will be pertinent here.

In the first debate at Ottawa, August 21, 1858, Lincoln said:

"I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and the black races. There

is a physical difference between the two which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality; and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position. I have never said anything to the contrary, but I hold that, notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas he is not my equal in many respects-certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowment. But in the right to eat the bread, without the leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal, and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man."

Later on, in the very notable address in February, 1861, at Philadelphia, indeed in the very Independence Hall, Lincoln said:

"I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing here in this place, where were collected the wisdom and patriotism and devotion to principle from which sprang the institutions under which we live. You have kindly suggested to me that in my hands is the task of restoring peace to the present distracted condition of the country. I can say in return, Sir, that all the political sentiments I entertain have been drawn so far as I have been able to draw them from the sentiments which originated and were given to the world from this hall. I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I have often pondered over

the dangers which were incurred by the men who assembled here and framed and adopted that Declaration of Independence. I have pondered over the toils that were endured by the officers and soldiers of the army who achieved that independence. . . . It was not the mere matter of a separation of the Colonies from the Motherland, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty not alone to the people of this country, but I hope to the world for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all men. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Now, my friends, can this country be saved on this basis? If it can I will consider myself one of the happiest men in the world if I can help to save it. If it cannot be saved upon that principle, it will be truly awful. But if this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender."

In view of all these declarations by Lincoln expressing with emphasis his abiding faith in the principles of the Declaration of Independence as the fundamental democracy of this country, it was entirely fitting that the great Magna Charta of his practical, patriotic democracy should be given at Gettysburg as the climax of it all.

Lincoln's great political teacher in democracy, anticipating the end, wrote his own epitaph in these modest words:

"Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom, and father of the University of Virginia."

He didn't even mention that he had been President of the United States for eight years, deeming it was

nobler to have contributed something to the political, religious, and intellectual liberty of the American people.

Had Lincoln written his own epitaph, at the close of his eventful life, the phrase in his own inimitable phrase, would perhaps have been something about liberty and democracy.

Most of us have read the Declaration of Independence. Few of us have studied it. Perhaps no other great American has given it the studious thought and analytical attention as did Abraham Lincoln.

It must have made a very profound impression upon him, else he would not have so earnestly and so often quoted it, discussed it, interpreted it, and applied it to the political conditions of the time.

Most of us have accepted its sentiments as "selfevident." At least we have given little thought to the logic that its lines develop. It is a poem of patriotism in prose. But it is more. It is a masterpiece of logic well worthy of an Aristotle, a Whateley, or a Mill.

As Lincoln himself has said in his speech at Philadelphia, February, 1861, heretofore referred to:

"I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. . . . It was not the mere matter of a separation of the Colonies from the Motherland, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty not alone to the people of this country, but I hope to the world for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all men. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence."

But Lincoln got more than sentiment from this Declaration, which he read in his early Indiana days out of David Turnham's "Revised Statutes of Indiana." Perchance he also may have read it in the "History of the United States," though we are not told whether such history contained the Declaration in full or not. At all events he must have learned it by heart at an early age, and its rich outcroppings appear almost continually in his course of political discussions and state

papers.

But the logic of that immortal document, as written by Jefferson, provided Lincoln with the key to those fundamental political doctrines that furnished the underpinning of our national democracy.

Let us give heed for a moment to this Declaration. Naturally, first comes the preamble, a masterly statement.

Then comes the declaration of self-evident truths: "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. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

Next comes the demonstration that these self-evident rights have been constantly and cardinally violated, viz.:

"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations,