"What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, the guns of our war steamers, or the strength our gallant and disciplined army? These are not our reliance against a resumption of tyranny in our fair land. All of those may be turned against our liberties, without making us weaker or stronger for the struggle. Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Lawyers from the United StatesAbolitionistsPoliticians from IllinoisAbraham LincolnPeople of the American Civil War
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Abraham Lincoln
1809 – 1865
Präsident der USA (1861-1865)
663 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Abraham Lincoln →
Related Quotes
"It is rather for us here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increa…"
"It is the eternal struggle between these two principles — right and wrong — throughout the world. They are the two pr…"
"Those arguments that are made, that the inferior race are to be treated with as much allowance as they are capable of…"
"I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisd…"
"I was a brute last night."
"Miscellany"
"The Writings of Abraham Lincoln"
"John Summerfield Staples, President Lincoln's "Substitute""
"Abraham Lincoln's Assassination"
"Meditations on the Divine Will (from an undated manuscript found among his papers by one of his secretaries found amo…"