Abraham Lincoln Defines Liberty

Abraham Lincoln Defines Liberty
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars - Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Unlike other biographers of Lincoln, Vernon Burton chose not to separate Lincoln’s southern origins from his beliefs.Lincoln had a strong sense of honor, a trait he derived from his southern upbringing. He believed the preservation of the Union was a matter of honor. Where Lincoln differed, however, was in the meaning of liberty.Lincoln said during the during the 1864 Great Maryland Fair in Baltimore that "the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor." For Lincoln, personal freedom, grounded in the rule of law, was a right of all.Lincoln asserted this belief during a time when the nation was struggling with its identity as a new republic - Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars