Lincoln Ponders the Meaning of "All Men are Created Equal"

David J. Kent

Washington, DC

Thursday October 9, 2025

In his long political career, Abraham Lincoln had to deal with groups he felt were out to betray his beloved Declaration of Independence. In a letter to James N. Brown in 1858 he stated that "I believe the declaration that 'all men are created equal' is the great fundamental principle upon which our free institutions rest."

Lincoln had always been a Whig in politics. But when a group calling themselves the "Know Nothings" began to arise, Lincoln found himself pondering the inclusivity of those five key words from the Declaration. When his old friend Joshua Speed asked him where he now stood politically now that the Whig Party was falling apart, Lincoln lamented how the words of the founders had been despoiled:

"Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except Negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.' When it comes to this, I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty - to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy."

Indeed, Lincoln was issuing a warning that bigotry and hatred of "others" went against the founding principles, that "all men are created equal" included ALL men, white as well as black, male as well as female, natural born as well as naturalized, and that all are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, including "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

These words remind us that even today we must be vigilant to sustain the uncompleted promise of our nation, to complete the unfinished work of striving for a more perfect union.