"There is what I call the American idea. I so name it, because it seems to me to lie at the basis of all our truly original, distinctive, and American institutions. It is itself a complex idea, composed of three subordinate and more simple ideas, namely: The idea that all men have unalienable rights; that in respect thereof, all men are created equal; and that government is to be established and sustained for the purpose of giving every man an opportunity for the enjoyment and development of all these unalienable rights. This idea demands, as the proximate organization thereof, a democracy, that is, a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people; of course, a government after the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God; for shortness' sake, I will call it the idea of Freedom."
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AbolitionistsUnitarians from the United StatesChristian leadersReligious leaders from the United StatesPeople from Boston
Original Language: English
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"The American Idea", a speech at New England Anti-Slavery Convention, Boston (29 May 1850)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theodore_Parker
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Theodore Parker
Theodore Parker (August 24, 1810 – May 10, 1860) was a reforming American minister of the Unitarian church, an abolitionist, and a Transcendentalist.
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