Lincoln on the Role of the Judiciary

“Judicial decisions have two uses – first, to absolutely determine the case decided, and, secondly, to indicate to the public how other similar cases will be decided when they arise. For the latter use they are called “precedents” and “authorities.” . . . Judicial decisions are of greater or less authority as precedents according to circumstances…  If this important decision had been made by the unanimous concurrence of the judges, and without any apparent partisan bias, and in accordance with legal public expectation, and with the steady practice of the departments throughout our history, and had been in no part based on assumed historical facts which are not really true; or, if wanting in some of those, it had been before the court more than once, and had there been affirmed and reaffirmed through a course of years, it then might be, perhaps would be, factious, nay, even revolutionary, not to acquiesce in it as a precedent. But when, as is true, we find it wanting in all these claims to the public confidence, it is not resistance, it is not factious, it is not even disrespectful, to treat it as not having yet quite established a settled doctrine for the country.”

Speech at Springfield, June 26, 1857

 


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Lincoln on Supreme Court Decisions

“I do not forget the position assumed by some, that constitutional questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court; nor do I deny that such decisions must be binding, in any case, upon the parties to the suit, as to the objects of that suit, while they are also entitled to very high respect and consideration in all parallel cases, by all other departments of the government. And while it is obviously possible that such decisions may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil effect following it being limited to that particular case, with the chance that it may be overruled, and never become a precedent for other cases, can better be borne than could the evils of a different practice. At the same time the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the government, upon vital questions affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation, between parties in personal actions, the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal.”

First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861

 


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Lincoln on Transportation Infrastructure

The Transcontinental Railroad Act enacted in 1862 over Lincoln’s signature built the trackage system that connected a nation, reducing the travel time between East and West from months to days. The benefits to commerce and industry, civilization and progress were immediately obtained. Government does have a legitimate role in infrastructure development and maintenance.

 


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Lincoln on the Veterans Administration

“This extraordinary war in which we are engaged falls heavily upon all classes of people, but the most heavily upon the soldier. For it has been said, all that a man hath will he give for his life; and while all contribute of their substance, the soldier puts his life at stake, and often yields it up in his country’s cause. The highest merit, then, is due to the soldier.”

Remarks, Washington, D.C., March 16, 1864

“As God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan – ”

Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865

 


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Lincoln on Voter Turnout

“It is the people’s business – the election is in their hands; If they turn their backs to the fire and get scorched in the rear, they’ll find they have got to sit on the blisters.”

Remarks, Washington, D.C., August, 1864

“It is not the qualified voters, but the qualified voters who choose to vote, that constitute the political power of the State.”

Opinion, Washington, D.C., December 31, 1862

 


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Lincoln on the War Against Drugs

“The warfare hitherto waged against the demon intemperance has somehow or other been erroneous. Either the champions engaged or the tactics they have adopted have not been the most proper.  …Another error, as it seems to me, into which the old reformers fell, was the position that all habitual drunkards were utterly incorrigible and therefore must be turned adrift and damned.   …In my judgment such of us as have never fallen victims have been spared more from the absence of appetite than from any mental or moral superiority over those who have…  Happy day when – all appetites controlled, all poisons subdued, all matter subjected – mind, all conquering mind, shall live and move, the monarch of the world. Glorious consummation! Hail, fall of fury! Reign of reason, all hail!”

Speech at Springfield, February 22, 1842

 


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Lincoln on Welfare Programs

“No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty, – none less inclined to take or touch aught which they have not honestly earned. Let them beware of surrendering a political power which they already possess, and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to close the door of advancement against such as they, and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them, till all of liberty be lost.”

Message to Congress; Washington, D.C., Dec. 3, 1861

“It does seem to me that the purpose in life of at least one half of the nation is that they should live comfortably at the expense of the other half.”

Remarks, Washington, D.C., 1861

 


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