Abraham Lincoln, Definition of Democracy, circa August 1, 1858

    Source citation
    Abraham Lincoln, Definition of Democracy, August 1,1858, in Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (8 vols., New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 2: 533, http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/.
    Type
    Miscellaneous
    Date Certainty
    Estimated
    Transcriber
    Transcription adapted from The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (1953), edited by Roy P. Basler
    Adapted by Matthew Pinsker, Dickinson College
    Transcription date
    The following text is presented here in complete form, as it originally appeared in print. Spelling and typographical errors have been preserved as in the original.
    [August 1, 1858?]
     
    As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.
    A. LINCOLN
    How to Cite This Page: "Abraham Lincoln, Definition of Democracy, circa August 1, 1858," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/40464.