America will never be destroyed from the outside.
If we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
Abraham Lincoln
23 April 2023:
It has come to our attention that whether Abraham Lincoln actually said these exact words has been disputed. Some have suggested, however, that this quote is an accurate paraphrase of a speech Lincoln gave on 27 January 1838 to the Young Men's Lyceum in Springfield, Illinois.
We will allow that representing the quote as Mr. Lincoln's exact words may have been an honest mistake. We also agree that our quote is an accurate approximation of President Lincoln's remarks in the 1838 Lyceum speech.
We ask that you do not allow yourselves to get lost in the minutia. The point I was hoping to make is that if Americans on both sides of the political spectrum do not forsake the acrimony, divisions, and even hatred in the current debate over the direction of the country, we will destroy the very country we are trying to save.
