Democracy: Lincoln's Role

Abraham Lincoln's most important accomplishment was that he formulated, gave voice to, and established once and for all the most basic principle of our democratic philosophy. Even more, he gave us the foundational principle for all future democratic countries, as well as for the entire world democratic movement.

Jefferson's principle of equality was widely misperceived and misinterpreted throughout America both before and during Lincoln's time. There had never been, until Lincoln's time, a clear agreed understanding of just what the phrase "all men are created equal" actually meant. Lincoln gave us his interpretation of Jefferson's principle and it has proven to be the correct interpretation.

Thomas Jefferson had introduced the broad philosophical concept of equality when he wrote, "all men are created equal." But he did not say that we are all created with equal rights. Our Declaration of Independence, our Bill of Rights, and our Constitution, prior to Lincoln's time, did not say we are all entitled to equal rights. They said we are entitled to rights, but they did not say we are all entitled to equal rights.

Much of the misunderstanding and misinterpretations of Jefferson's principle were due to the fact that in 1857 the United States Supreme Court decided in the Dred Scott decision that there was no basis in law for equal rights for all. They held that "the constitution of the United States expressly recognized property in slaves," according to Lincoln. Instead of moving toward greater equality, inequality was growing stronger throughout the entire country, aided, abetted and sanctioned by the highest court in the land.

Lincoln's opponent for election to the U.S. Senate from Illinois, Stephen A. Douglas, in a speech prior to the formal debates with Lincoln, had claimed that the signers of the Declaration were not referring to all men, "they were speaking of white men, men of European birth... and descent. This government was established by white men for the benefit of white men, and should be administered by white men and none others."

Lincoln knew that Douglas' interpretation of the Declaration was wrong because he recognized that any policy or principle that proposed or accepted the subservience of one group to another group as a permanent arrangement was "wholly inadmissible" and would forever justify slavery or subservience in some form. It was then that Abraham Lincoln formed and declared his interpretation of Jefferson's principle of equality.

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