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[[image - black and white photograph of Abraham Lincoln]]
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Let us have faith that right makes might . . .
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Fragment on Slavery, July 1, 1854?

Most governments have been based, practically, on the denial of equal rights of men . . . Ours began by affirming those rights.  They said, some men are too ignorant and vicious to share in government.  Possibly so, said we; and, by your system, you would always keep them ignorant and vicious.  We proposed to give all a chance; and we expected the weak to grow stronger, the ignorant wiser and all better and happier together.  We made the experiment, and the fruit is before us. . . . Look at it in its aggregate grandeur. . . .

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