“The people themselves, and not their servants, can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions.”

—  Abraham Lincoln

1860s, Fourth of July Address to Congress (1861)
Context: It was with the deepest regret that the Executive found the duty of employing the war power in defense of the Government forced upon him. He could but perform this duty or surrender the existence of the Government. No compromise by public servants could in this case be a cure; not that compromises are not often proper, but that no popular government can long survive a marked precedent that those who carry an election can only save the government from immediate destruction by giving up the main point upon which the people gave the election. The people themselves, and not their servants, can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions.

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Abraham Lincoln618
16th President of the United States 1809–1865

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