Certainly，astoindividuals，classes，communitieseven，adoctrinethatmighteasilybecomedestructive。ButitformedthebasisofallLincoln’sthoughtaboutthe“majority“inAmerica。Uponitwouldhaverestedhisreply，hadheevermadeareply，totheVirginiacontentionthatwhilehistheorymightapplytoeachindividualState，itcouldnotapplytothegroupofStates。Hewouldhavetreatedsuchareply，whetherfairlyorunfairly，asalegaltechnicality。Hewouldhavesaidinsubstance：hereisacongregationtobebenefited，thisgreatmassofalltheinhabitantsofalltheStatesoftheUnion；
accident，ordestiny，orwhatyouwill，hasbroughtthemtogether，butheretheyare；theyaremovingforward，haltingly，irregularly，butsteadily，towardfullerandfullerdemocracy；theyarepartoftheuniversaldemocraticmovement；
theirvastexperimenthasaninternationalsignificance；itisthehopeofthe“Liberalpartythroughouttheworld“；tocheckthatexperiment，tobreakitintoSeparateminorexperiments；
toreducetheimposingpromiseofitsexamplebymakingitseemunsuccessful，wouldbetreasontomankind。Therefore，bothonSouthandNorth，bothontheSecedershemeanttofightandonthoseNorthernersofwhomhewasnotentirelysure，heaimedtoimposethesupremeimmediatedutyofprovingtotheworldthatdemocracyonagreatscalecouldhavesufficientvitalitytomaintainitselfagainstanysortofattack。AnticipatingfaintlytheGettysburgoration，thefirstmessagecontainedthesewords：“AndthisissueembracesmorethanthefateoftheseUnitedStates。Itpresentstothewholefamilyofmanthequestionwhetheraconstitutionalrepublic，ordemocracy——agovernmentofthepeoplebythesamepeople——canorcannotmaintainitsintegrityagainstitsowndomesticfoes……
Mustagovernmentofnecessitybetoostrongforthelibertiesofitspeopleortooweaktomaintainitsownexistence？“[7]HetoldHaythat“thecrucialideapervadingthisstruggleisthenecessitythatisuponustoprovethatpopulargovernmentisnotanabsurdity“；“thatthebasalissuewaswhetherornothepeoplecouldgovernthemselves。“[8]