Abraham Lincoln often warned about the dangers of allowing certain Americans to act as “kings.” Lincoln harkened back to the Declaration of Independence and its self-evident truths “that all men are created equal” and endowed “with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It was on this basis that the united colonies declared their separation from Britain. After the soaring preamble, the remainder of the document is a list of grievances against the British King.
One of the grievances included by Thomas Jefferson in the draft – but removed from the final declaration due to resistance among the biggest slave-holding powers – blamed King George of waging “cruel war against human nature itself” by introducing slavery onto American soil. It was one of many complaints against the rule of Kings. In his Peoria speech, Lincoln noted about slavery that the Founders “found the institution existing among us, which they could not help; and they cast blame upon the British King for having permitted its introduction.” They still couldn’t eradicate slavery completely by the time of the Constitution but took steps to put it on a path toward its ultimate extinction. Unfortunately for them, the invention of the cotton gin and expansion of the new nation’s land area resulted in the opposite, substantial growth in slavery.
In the famous Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858, when Lincoln was running against Stephen A. Douglas for a US Senate seat, Lincoln again raised the issue of democracy versus “the divine right of kings.” When forcefully noting that slavery was wrong, Lincoln said:
“That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles—right and wrong—throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time; and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, “You work and toil and earn bread, and I’ll eat it.” No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle.“
It is the duty of all Americans to stand up for the democratic principles that made this country great. We must assure that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution protect ALL Americans.
[Photo Mathew Brady, February 27, 1860, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons]
Coming in March 2026: Lincoln in New England: In Search of His Forgotten Tours
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David J. Kent is Immediate Past President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.
His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.
