لطالما وُصفت حكومتنا الشعبية بأنها تجربة. وقد حسم شعبنا نقطتين فيها: إقامتها بنجاح، وإدارتها بنجاح. وتبقى نقطة واحدة: الحفاظ عليها بنجاح في وجه محاولة داخلية جسيمة لإسقاطها.

“Our popular government has often been called an experiment. Two points in it our people have already settled, the successful establishing and the successful administering of it. One still remains, its successful maintenance against a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it.”Abraham Lincoln — Message of the President of the United States to the Two Houses of Congress, at the Commencement of the First Session of the Thirty-seventh Congress (1861)