Abraham Lincoln Quotes
Important principles may and must be inflexible.
This statement is often misquoted as “Important principles may and must be inflexible” which, of course, is the opposite of what he actually said.
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Without Dirksen’s support, LBJ could not have passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ending legal segregation. However, the conservative wing of the Republican Party had strongly opposed the idea of the Federal Government using its power to control and regulate issues that involved local practice and custom and trampled on states’ rights. Dirksen, who personally was not a racist like many conservatives were at the time, faced the dilemma and came down on the side of ending legal discrimination even if it meant violating the principle of limited federal government. When asked about his seeming inconsistency (which was often), this was his brilliant response. Producing one of the best political quotations of all time.
Abraham Lincoln was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. In doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy.
