“The people themselves, and not their servants, can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions.”
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.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Abraham Lincoln 618
16th President of the United States 1809–1865Related quotes
“[It's] not our decision to make. It's up to the people themselves.”
National Public Radio (1999); on the preservation of languages.
Letter to http://www.familytales.org/dbDisplay.php?id=ltr_thj1489 George Washington (4 January 1786)
1780s
Source: Letters of Thomas Jefferson
“Nobody is safe of his life, property and health when the parliament deliberates.”
As quoted in "Nuclear weapons unholy, Iran says" in SFGate (31 October 2003) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/10/31/MNGHJ2NFRE1.DTL.
2003
“Too many critics mistake the deliberations of the Congress for its decisions.”
On the weekly radio broadcast, "Texas Forum of the Air" (November 1, 1942); reported in Congressional Record (November 2, 1942), vol. 88, Appendix, p. A3866.
Source: Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
Letter to Colonel Charles Yancey http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=807&chapter=88152&layout=html&Itemid=27 (6 January 1816) ME 14:384
1810s