11. LINCOLN INTERPRETS THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

The discussion stage of the great controversy over slavery reached its climax on the speaker's platform, in the formulation of political philosophy, and in Court decisions during the 1850's. The Dred Scott Decision was announced by the Supreme Court on March 7, 1857. Lincoln held that the Court had made a bad decision and had wrongly interpreted the law of the land. In a great speech a few months after the Dred Scott Decision had been handed down he appealed to the Declaration of Independence and inquired into the intentions of the framers and the meaning of some of the stirring clauses of that famous document in support of his view.

I think the authors of that notable instrument intended to include all men, but they did not intend to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not mean to say all were equal in color, size, intellect, moral developments, or social capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness in what respects they did consider all men created equal—equal with "certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This they said, and this they meant. They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth that all were then actually enjoying that equality, nor yet that they were about to confer it immediately upon them. In fact, they had no power to confer such a boon. They meant simply to declare the right, so that enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances should permit.

They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, which should be familiar to all, and revered by all; constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people of all colors everywhere. The assertion that "all men are created equal" was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain; and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use. Its authors meant it to be—as, thank God, it is now proving itself—a stumbling-block to all those who in after times might seek to turn a free people back into the hateful paths of despotism. They knew the proneness of prosperity to breed tyrants, and they meant when such should reappear in this fair land and commence their vocation, they should find left for them at least one hard nut to crack.

LINCOLN SPRINGFIELD SPEECH, JUNE 26, 1857.

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