OF / BY / FOR THE PEOPLE
When Lincoln delivered his iconic Gettysburg Address in November of 1863, he concluded with the hope, “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” A possible inspiration for that line of his address comes from former Senator Daniel Webster who said the government is, “made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people.” The idea that the government derives its strength from its people is an idea that was made popular by early philosophers of Liberalism such as John Locke.
These ideas from early Liberalism contributed directly to the principles on which this country was founded, and we can see, from Lincoln’s speech, that these same ideas carried through to the civil war and the abolishment of slavery in the United States.