Seeing OWS from afar

This is essentially a People's contest. On the side of the Union, it is a struggle for maintaining in the world, that form, and substance of government, whose leading object is, to elevate the condition of men -- to lift artificial weights from all shoulders -- to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all -- to afford all, an unfettered start, and a fair chance, in the race of life. ~ Abraham Lincoln

~ Lincoln is explaining in a written speech to Congress why he needs to order up an army a couple of months after taking office. Note he's linking the viability of the Union with the project of Democracy in toto. In the same missive he also wrote:

.... this issue embraces more than the fate of these United States. It represents to the whole family of man, the question, whether a constitutional republic, or a democracy -- a government of the people, by the same people -- can, or cannot, maintain its territorial integrity, against its own domestic foes. . .

Particularly nice: "by the same people."

From: Team of Rivals