Abraham Lincoln made his way to Washington, D.C. by a roundabout rail route in February 1861. Among his many stops was the city of Philadelphia, where on George Washington’s birthday he raised the American flag at Independence Hall. Lincoln acknowledged the import of the spot where the Declaration of Independence was signed:
“I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing here in the place where were collected together the wisdom, the patriotism, the devotion to principle, from which sprang the institutions under which we live.”
He also understood the import of the task that had fallen to him as the president-elect. Seven southern states had seceded from the Union, violating the intent of the Declaration and the Constitution that implemented its guiding principle. Lincoln embraced the Declaration and its aspirational words that “all men are created equal” and endowed with unalienable rights, including “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Lincoln stated clearly:
“I can say…that all the political sentiments I entertain have been drawn…from the sentiments which originated, and were given to the world from this hall in which we stand. I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence.”
Lincoln knew that the Declaration was more than “the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the mother land.” It was that the Declaration’s ideal of “giving liberty not alone to the people of this country, but hope to the world for all future time.” He added, “It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence.”
At the time of the Declaration, it’s ideal that “all men are created equal” was still an aspiration. With a large percentage of the population held in bound servitude against their will, Lincoln understood what the Founders had understood, that much work had to be done to achieve a more perfect Union. It would pass to Lincoln to finally remove the stain of slavery from our midst.
But there is a deeper, darker, knowledge that influenced Lincoln’s words that day in Philadelphia. Not only had several states split the Union already, but there was a plot to kill Lincoln even before he had a chance to be inaugurated in as president, never mind take any action the South found objectionable. An assassination plot had been uncovered. Southern sympathizers in Baltimore planned to murder Lincoln as he passed through the city on his way to Washington. In Philadelphia, Lincoln again pointed to the Declaration as the sustaining guidance to the nation and to him.
“Now, my friends, can this country be saved upon that basis [all men having an equal chance]? If it can, I will consider myself one of the happiest men in the world if I can help to save it. If it can’t be saved upon that principle, it will be truly awful. But, if this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle—I was about to say I would rather be assassinated on this spot than to surrender it.”
Now, in my view of the present aspect of affairs, there is no need of bloodshed and war. There is no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course, and I may say in advance, there will be no blood shed unless it be forced upon the Government. The Government will not use force unless force is used against it.” (Prolonged applause and cries of “That’s the proper sentiment.”)
As I write this the nation is in the midst of another existential crisis, this one the reverse of what Lincoln had noted. We, the people, must stand for the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence and apply the Constitution to ALL Americans.
[Photo by German, Christopher S. – Library of Congress, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25149728]
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.
How time flies! The list of Lincoln statues grows, I get interviewed for a documentary, more tasks accumulate, and the big Lincoln in New England cover reveal nears. And that’s just in the last week.
There stands a statue of Abraham Lincoln in Hingham, Massachusetts, New England. It’s immediately across the street from the Samuel Lincoln house. In Hingham, England, United Kingdom there is also a statue of Lincoln. But why? And who was Samuel Lincoln?
The statue in Hingham, England is actually a bust, not a full statue. It was created based on the life mask of Leonard Volk made in 1860 just after Lincoln’s nomination. It depicts a much younger, beardless (and shirtless) Lincoln. It sits in an alcove on the side of St. Andrew’s Church. The bust was installed in 1919 to commemorate the Lincoln ancestry that had for many generations worshiped at the St. Andrew parish.
Another connection is to Robert Burns, the Scottish poet whom Lincoln had a particular fascination. Lincoln had supposedly discovered Burns from Jack Kelso, an enigmatic friend from Lincoln’s New Salem days. Kelso had emigrated to the United States from Scotland, where he had previously been a Glasgow schoolteacher. He apparently owned many volumes of Burns that Lincoln read over and over (ditto for Shakespeare). Lincoln was hooked and recited Burns from memory on many occasions through his life. Robert Burns is eminently present in Edinburgh, including a large monument at the foot of Calton Hill (not far from the aforementioned Lincoln statue). Burns is also one of the three Scottish writers featured in the Writers’ Museum tucked into Lady Stair’s Close a few steps off the Royal Mile that leads to the Edinburgh Castle. He is joined there by Robert Louis Stevenson and Sir Walter Scott.
The American Civil War Museum in Richmond, Virginia once had a statue depicting Abraham Lincoln and his son Tad sitting on a park bench. As of this writing it is no longer there, and hasn’t been since 2023. So, where is it?
While at the Valentine I also got to see another “Civil War President.” A statue of Jefferson Davis had stood for many decades along Monument Avenue in Richmond. During the 2020 protests over the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota, the Davis statue was vandalized with paint, then pulled down. That statue now sits – or more accurately, lays – in the Valentine’s main gallery. Pink and yellow paint splatters the bronze, Davis’s head is bashed in from the fall off his pedestal, and his right arm is nearly severed. The display symbolizes the city’s change in attitude over its prior adulation of Confederate figures. All of its many dozens of Confederate statues have now been removed, with the exception of a few remaining on the grounds of the Viriginia State Capitol (you walk past them as you proceed from the equestrian statue of George Washington to the Governor’s Mansion). They are now joined by two large group statues, one featuring the many women who fought for voting rights and the other of Barbara Johns and others who fought the battle that would become Brown v. Board of Education. Johns is scheduled to replace Robert E. Lee in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall. Interestingly, it was Edward Virginius Valentine who had sculpted both the Lee statue (now removed from the hall and currently at Richmond’s Museum of History and Culture) and the one of Davis now at the Valentine Museum. Hopefully, Johns will make it into Statuary Hall soon, perhaps after the new governor takes off after this fall’s election.
Abraham Lincoln is best known as the sixteenth President of the United States, long before the POTUS acronym was invented. He was elected in November 1860 and by the time he was inaugurated in March 1861, seven southern states had seceded, with four more joining them just over a month later after the new Confederacy attacked Fort Sumter. But this wasn’t the first time Lincoln had been put forward for executive office. In 1856 he was nominated by his fellow new Republican Party members for Vice President after the party had nominated John C. Fremont for President.
