{"id":942,"date":"2013-06-28T20:30:30","date_gmt":"2013-06-28T20:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/?p=942"},"modified":"2016-06-20T14:17:09","modified_gmt":"2016-06-20T14:17:09","slug":"fragment-on-the-constitution-january-1861","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/fragment-on-the-constitution-january-1861\/","title":{"rendered":"Fragment on the Constitution (January 1861)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contributing Editors for this page include Rob O’Keefe<\/em><\/p>\n

Ranking<\/strong><\/h3>\n

#50<\/span> on the list of 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents<\/em><\/p>\n

Annotated Transcript<\/h3>\n

“All this is not the result of accident. It has a philosophical cause. Without the Constitution<\/em> and the Union<\/em>, we could not have attained\u00a0the result; but even these, are not the primary cause of our great prosperity.”<\/a><\/p>\n

On This Date<\/h3>\n

[Editorial Note: \u00a0This undated fragment has traditionally been considered to have been created in\u00a0January 1861<\/em>]<\/p>\n

HD Daily Report, January, 1861<\/a><\/p>\n

The Lincoln Log, January 1861<\/a><\/p>\n

Custom Map<\/h3>\n

\"Screen
\n<\/a>View Large Map<\/a><\/p>\n

Close Readings<\/h3>\n

Rob O’Keefe, “Understanding Lincoln” blog post (via Quora), June 28, 2014<\/a><\/p>\n

How Historians Interpret<\/h3>\n

\u201cAs the image of the apple of gold and the picture of silver indicates, Lincoln believed that the Declaration and the Constitution needed each other. The Declaration was a statement of foundational natural rights and natural rights which were shared everywhere by every human being. But it was not, and could not be, a statement about civil or political rights, which were a different thing altogether.\u201d<\/p>\n

— Allen C. Guelzo, Abraham Lincoln as a Man of Ideas <\/em><\/a>(Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2009), 114.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cPursuing inquiry in Socratic terms, Lincoln the philosopher statesman probed the underlying \u2018philosophical cause\u2019 of the Union\u2019s success in maintaining ordered liberty He attributed this success to the perpetuation of the principles of the Declaration as safeguarded by the Constitution. On the eve of the Civil War, the sixteenth president summed up his philosophical vision of the Union in a letter to Alexander Stephens, a former Whig colleague who had initially opposed Georgia\u2019s session. He used a biblical metaphor from Proverbs 25:1, \u2018A word fitfully spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver\u2019 to convey the complementary relationship between the Declaration and the Constitution in securing a \u2018more perfect\u2019 Union\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

— Joseph R. Fornieri, Abraham Lincoln: Philosopher Statesman <\/a><\/em>(Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2014), 14.<\/p>\n

NOTE TO READERS<\/span><\/h3>\n

This page is under construction and will be developed further by students in the new \u201cUnderstanding Lincoln\u201d online course sponsored by the House Divided Project at Dickinson College and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. To find out more about the course and to see some of our videotaped class sessions, including virtual field trips to Ford’s Theatre and Gettysburg, please visit our Livestream page at http:\/\/new.livestream.com\/gilderlehrman\/lincoln<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Searchable Text<\/span><\/h3>\n
All this is not the result of accident. It has a philosophical cause. Without the\u00a0Constitution<\/em>\u00a0and the\u00a0Union<\/em>, we could not have attained\u00a0the result; but even these, are not the primary cause of our great prosperity. There is something back of these, entwining itself more closely about the human heart. That something, is the principle of “Liberty to all” —the principle that clears the\u00a0path<\/em>\u00a0for all—gives\u00a0hope<\/em>\u00a0to all — and, by consequence,\u00a0enterprize<\/em>, and\u00a0industry<\/em>\u00a0to all.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
The\u00a0expression<\/em>\u00a0of that principle, in our Declaration of Independence, was most happy, and fortunate.\u00a0Without<\/em>\u00a0this, as well as\u00a0with<\/em>\u00a0it, we could have declared our independence of Great Britain; but\u00a0without\u00a0<\/em>it, we could not, I think, have secured our free government, and consequent prosperity. No oppressed, people will\u00a0fight<\/em>, and\u00a0endure<\/em>, as our fathers did, without the promise of something better, than a mere change of masters.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
The assertion of that\u00a0principle<\/em>, at\u00a0that time<\/em>, was the word,\u00a0“fitly spoken”\u00a0<\/em>which has proved an “apple of gold” to us. The\u00a0Union<\/em>, and the\u00a0Constitution<\/em>, are the\u00a0picture of silver<\/em>, subsequently framed around it. The picture was made, not to\u00a0concea<\/em>l, or\u00a0destroy<\/em>\u00a0the apple; but to\u00a0adorn<\/em>, and\u00a0preserve\u00a0<\/em>it. The picture was made\u00a0for<\/em>\u00a0the apple —\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0the apple for the picture.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
So let us act, that neither\u00a0picture<\/em>, or\u00a0apple<\/em>\u00a0shall ever be blurred, or bruised or broken.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
That we may so act, we must study, and understand the points of danger.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contributing Editors for this page include Rob O’Keefe Ranking #50 on the list of 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents Annotated Transcript “All this is not the result of accident. It has a philosophical cause. Without the Constitution and the Union, we could not have attained\u00a0the result; but even these, are not the primary cause of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10859],"tags":[10866,10894,10887,11625,10864,10865,10876],"class_list":["post-942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-savior-of-the-union","tag-antebellum","tag-civil-liberties","tag-founders","tag-nationalism","tag-notes","tag-private","tag-younger-readers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=942"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4453,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942\/revisions\/4453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}