Abraham Lincoln Quotes
Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.
Lincoln, Abraham. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Edited by Roy P. Basler, vol. 3, Rutgers University Press, 1953, p. 27.
Bradlaugh was an atheist and refused to take his oath on a Bible or swear to God. He offered to make an affirmation. The issue was debated for 6 years and finally resolved in Bradlaugh’s favor. The right to affirm instead of take a religious oath is now settled American and English law.
The entertainer was organizing rock concerts to raise money for the problem of AIDS in Africa. However, he felt that the money was only a part of the mission. Making foreign aid for AIDS popular was critical in the light of a negative public perception of the benefit of foreign aid to many third world countries.
An excellent example of this occurred in the first decades of the 21st century. At the beginning if the century, the majority of Americans were clearly opposed to the idea of same-sex / gay marriage. By 2008, the population was evenly split, for and against. By 2014 the majority of Americans were clearly in favor of same-sex marriage and it had been legalized in more than a dozen states.
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.
