“Government of the People, by the People, for the People.”

Founders Quote of the Week

This quote is taken from Abraham Lincoln’s speech at Gettysburg. Now he isn’t a Founder, but I’ll take a little liberty with the phrase if we’ll all agree that he is at least a towering figure of the nation and its history.

The speech was a memorial for the men who died there on that field. Less than two years earlier, in July of 1863, over a period of three days, 46,000 casualties were recorded. Still to this day it is the largest recording of American casualties from a single battle.

The battle itself was incredibly significant, just as Lincoln’s words as he attempted to consecrate the field became more important than he could have ever imagined. But what I would like to focus on here is the phrase and concept of “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

Here is an extended version of that quote which Lincoln used as the ending to his short but impactful speech:

“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a…