Speech in the Senate (3 March 1854)
1850s
Quoted by Z. Chafee Jr. Atlantic Monthly (January 1955)
1910s, Address to the Knights of Columbus (1915)
Context: Our nation was founded to perpetuate democratic principles. These principles are that each man is to be treated on his worth as a man without regard to the land from which his forefathers came and without regard to the creed which he professes. If the United States proves false to these principles of civil and religious liberty, it will have inflicted the greatest blow on the system of free popular government that has ever been inflicted. Here we have had a virgin continent on which to try the experiment of making out of divers race stocks a new nation and of treating all the citizens of that nation in such a fashion as to preserve them equality of opportunity in industrial, civil, and political life. Our duty is to secure each man against any injustice by his fellows.
No. V, The House of Commons, p. 159
Cf the Gettysburg Address.
The English Constitution (1867)
“Liberty was the second article of our covenant. It was self-government. It was our Bill of Rights.”
1960s, Inaugural address (1965)
Context: Liberty was the second article of our covenant. It was self-government. It was our Bill of Rights. But it was more. America would be a place where each man could be proud to be himself: stretching his talents, rejoicing in his work, important in the life of his neighbors and his nation. This has become more difficult in a world where change and growth seem to tower beyond the control and even the judgment of men. We must work to provide the knowledge and the surroundings which can enlarge the possibilities of every citizen. The American covenant called on us to help show the way for the liberation of man. And that is today our goal. Thus, if as a nation there is much outside our control, as a people no stranger is outside our hope.
1790s, Farewell Address (1796)
Context: The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish Government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established Government.
Question http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1972/nov/06/inflation-government-proposals#column_631 to the Prime Minister Edward Heath in the House of Commons (6 November 1972)
1970s
“The equality of the human race is the pivot upon which our government rests and resolves.”
As quoted in His Brother's Blood: Speeches and Writings, 1838–64 https://web.archive.org/web/20160319090912/https://books.google.com/books?id=qMEv8DNXVbIC&pg=PA333#v=onepage&q&f=false (2004), edited by William Frederick Moore and Jane Ann Moore, p. 333
1860s, Speech (June 1862)
"Fooling the People as a Fine Art", La Follette's Magazine (April 1918)
