Ok, first, I'm new here, but before you think or say anything, I have read the Constitution. Being that there are another 4,637 things to remember each day, I'm afraid I may not remember all of it, so if I violate it at all, it is certainly not intentional & I apologize.
NOW, I am looking for a quote that I could have sworn was uttered by President Lincoln, but after researching several Lincoln sites, I can't find it. The quote has to do with it being our duty as citizens to change our government if it is not serving us in the best way, or something like that.
"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." ~ Abraham Lincoln, 1st Inaugural Address, 4 Mar 1861.
'Any people whatsoever have the right to abolish the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred right.' ~ Abraham Lincoln admitting the right of secession, 4 July 1848 http://www.stainlessbanner.com/quotes.htm
Other quotes by Lincoln:
"The people are masters of both Congress and courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it!" "Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand."
"While serving in Congress, Lincoln was an outspoken supporter of the Marxist/socialist revolutions in Europe going on at the time. In 1861, Honest Abe sought to free the South from itself. Four years, billions of dollars in property loss and debt, and 600,000 lost lives later, Lincoln got his wish and our modern day federal government in Washington is the fruit of his labor. Don't everybody cheer at once." --MATTHEW CHANCEY
Thank you for your response. I did come across those quotes in my search. I'm not 100% it was Lincoln who said what I'm thinking, & those quotes are close to what I'm thinking, but I'm sure the word "duty" was in there.
I know, this is terrible, the way I'm going about this, but it's worse not trying to get any help & let it eat me alive!
This is a quotation from Thomas Jefferson and the one I think you may have been looking for.
Tyranny We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Declaration of Independence
