“I have never said anything to the contrary, but I hold that notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas he is not my equal in many respects—certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowment. But in the right to eat the bread, without leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man.”
— Abraham Lincoln

Annotation

The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume III, First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois (August 21, 1858), p. 16.

Tagged: Stephen A. Douglas, Declaration of Independence, Race, Blacks and Whites
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