Lincoln, the Declaration, and the enduring case for self-government
Historian Allen C. Guelzo traces Abraham Lincoln’s statesmanship to the nation’s founding principles during A Supreme Evening 2026 in Tallahassee
Historian Dr. Allen C. Guelzo, left, and retiring Florida Supreme Court Justice Charles Canady discuss Abraham Lincoln and the enduring principles of the Declaration of Independence during The Florida Supreme Court Historical Society's A Supreme Evening 2026 on January 22 in Tallahassee.
As the nation prepares to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in July, one of the country’s leading Lincoln scholars reminded Florida lawyers that the document’s power lies not in history alone, but in its enduring principles.
That message took center stage January 22 in Tallahassee at A Supreme Evening 2026, hosted by the Florida Supreme Court Historical Society. The annual gathering brought together judges, lawyers, legislators, and court supporters for a fireside conversation between retiring Justice Charles Canady and Pulitzer Prize–nominated historian Dr. Allen C. Guelzo.
Guelzo, a New York Times best-selling author and professor of humanities at the University of Florida’s Hamilton School of Classical and Civic Education, focused his remarks on the central role the Declaration of Independence played in shaping Abraham Lincoln’s statesmanship — and ultimately, the course of American democracy. He was joined by Canady, a three-term chief justice who recently stepped down from the court to become director and a tenured professor at UF’s Hamilton School.
For much of his early life, Guelzo noted, Lincoln was hardly a towering national figure. He was a very good trial lawyer and a politician “who loved the nuts and bolts of politics,” but “up until the 1850s, he did not really project much beyond that.”
That changed abruptly in 1854 with passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which opened western territories to the possible expansion of slavery. Until then, Guelzo said, Lincoln believed slavery — though morally wrong — was destined to die out on its own if it were simply prevented from spreading.
Then came the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Guelzo said. “At that point, Lincoln said, ‘We awoke as if from a sleep.’”
Lincoln believed that the legislation that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and allowed settlers there to decide for themselves whether to permit slavery and repealed the Missouri Compromise’s ban on slavery north of 36°30′, which had stood since 1820, threatened to expand slavery and undermine the moral foundation of the republic. It also propelled him back into political life — and back to the Declaration of Independence as his guiding text, Guelzo said.
In his 1854 Peoria, Illinois, speech opposing the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Lincoln posed what Guelzo called a fundamental constitutional question: How can slavery be aligned with the principle that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed?
“How can slavery be reconciled with consent? How can you say to a slave you are not permitted to govern yourself and then turn around and say to other people, ‘Oh yes, we believe in the consent of the governed,’” Guelzo said, paraphrasing Lincoln.
For Lincoln, the Declaration’s promise of consent was the “sheet anchor” of American republicanism, Guelzo explained, adding without it, Lincoln thought the nation drifted without purpose or direction.
Lincoln’s frustration only deepened as the nation continued to celebrate Independence Day while disregarding its principles.
“July Fourth had become good for nothing but burning firecrackers,” Guelzo said, recounting Lincoln’s criticism that the Declaration’s ideals were being ignored.
That conviction followed Lincoln through his election in 1860 and into his presidency. On his inaugural journey from Illinois to Washington, Lincoln stopped in Trenton, New Jersey, where he reflected on reading about the Battle of Trenton during the revolution as a boy.
What was at stake, Lincoln said, was more than just breaking ties with the mother country — it was a principle the new nation swore it allegiance to.
Later, standing in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Lincoln made what Guelzo described as one of the most revealing statements.
“I have never had a political thought that did not arise from the Declaration of Independence,” said Lincoln, adding that he would rather be assassinated than abandon its principles.
Four years and two months later, Guelzo noted, Lincoln’s body would lie in state in that same Independence Hall.”
Throughout the Civil War, Lincoln repeatedly returned to the Declaration’s assertion that “all men are created equal,” Guelzo said, viewing it not as an outdated slogan but as a timeless truth.
When asked to define democracy, Lincoln offered what Guelzo described as a “negative definition.”
“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master,” Lincoln said. “This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.”
That principle guided Lincoln from the Emancipation Proclamation through the signing of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery, Guelzo said.
Lincoln’s most enduring expression of that belief came at Gettysburg in 1863, when he traced the nation’s purpose back “four score and seven years” to 1776.
He wasn’t saying we were fighting for territory or economic advantage, Guelzo said. “We were fighting for an idea — an idea that is captured in a proposition.”
That proposition, Guelzo emphasized, set the United States apart from nations founded on bloodlines, religion, or ethnicity.
“Lincoln says the America Republic is dedicated to none of those things. We are dedicated to a proposition,” Guelzo said. “And that means anyone who embraces that proposition is in.”
Guelzo illustrated the point with personal and historical examples — from his own Swedish immigrant ancestors to Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, the Prussian-born military officer best known for training Washington’s Continental Army in Valley Forge.
Von Steuben, Guelzo said, once wrote back to a friend in Germany that the great difference between Germans and Americans is this: “When you give orders to Germans they immediately obey. When you give orders to Americans you also have to explain to them why they should obey.”
Lincoln’s genius, Guelzo concluded, was recognizing that the survival of self-government depended on fidelity to that original promise.
Lincoln believed, Guelzo said, that If Americans are guided and inspired by the same Declaration that inspired the soldiers of the Revolution and the Civil War, “a government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”
