Abraham Lincoln's Definition of Democracy

Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln met several times.

Today is President's day, it falls between the birthdays' of the two most important U.S. Presidents: Abraham Lincoln born on February 12, 1809 and George Washington on February 22, 1732. Both, in today's ahistorical climate, are considered controversial, but reading their statements, and their example one obtains a deeper understanding of why they are, and should be honored and remembered as exemplars.

Historians believe that Abraham Lincoln wrote his definition of democracy on August 1, 1858.

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy."

Slavery was routed after a long and bloody war that begin in 1861 and ended with the Union consolidated in 1865, and President Abraham Lincoln assassinated  by Southern partisans on the evening of April 14, 1865. 

Abolitionist Frederick Douglass passed away on this day in 1895 at his Cedar Hill home in Anacostia.The DC City Council commemorated this anniversary earlier today.

On this date in 1895, Frederick Douglass passed away at his Cedar Hill home in Anacostia. His funeral was held at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church. We are so proud of all Douglass accomplished, & that he lived out his final decades here in DC. pic.twitter.com/MIwjpfdUgh

— Council of DC (@councilofdc) February 20, 2023

Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass met together three times in the White House. Historians report that Douglass was initially harshly critical, but he ultimately came to view Lincoln as "emphatically the Black man's president: the first to show any respect for their rights as men." 

Over the next 12 years we saw the  U.S. Constitution amended, slavery outlawed in the United States, and African Americans living in the United States made full citizens, but then a corrupt bargain ended this spring of freedom and the Dream was deferred 80 years.

Progress is not inevitable, and the legacy of Lincoln, and his clear eyed view of democracy impacted the direction of the United States positively to the present day.

His definition of democracy remains relevant today for too many around the world still denied it.

These are additional reasons for my defense in June 2020 of the Emancipation Memorial at Lincoln Park, and for it remaining in its current location.