Four Score and Seven Years Ago...

"Better the colony should perish than a principle."

Alejo Carpentier (Kingdom of This World 66)

For some reason the word 'perish' in this sentence created a connection for me to a powerful speech written back in the nineteenth century. Visionaries and liberals from the novel quoted this line in response to the French colonists permitting the black slaves to some political rights. These men, who despite the eminent threat of a possible civil war still understood the right for human equality.

A similar visionary, Abraham Lincoln echoed these same words in his speech the Gettysburg Address, also campaigned for the continuation of the rights of man over the rights of the federal or state government.

Quoting a few lines:

“…dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal… we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

The principle is that equality exists among all human beings, an inalienable right, which was a strong motive and cause, whether directly or indirectly, for this civil war in the United States. The death statistics are unfathomable for this war and other civil revolts around the world. Specifically in the United States it was in the name and principle of freedom, showing that the colony, country, community, was worth very little if no one was willing to fight to the basic principles to command a country by.

Where a hundred and fifty years later, can we still say that any sacrifice is worthy for divine, correct, and inherent principles to continue forward? Is it better to perish than let a principle endure?

Lincoln understood that sacrifices were necessary for true principles to endure and the founders of the United States before him, or other ‘liberalists’ or ‘visionaries’ for that matter. It is indispensable that every citizen understands, lives for, and protects the liberties of equality and government by the people, that so many before have paid the ultimate price.