Abraham Lincoln’s Letter to Our Elected Leaders

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In a previous post, I imagined a letter from Abraham Lincoln to the American people.

But today, the silence isn’t among citizens—it’s in the chambers of power. Given the paralysis we’re witnessing, I turned again to my favorite president and asked: What would Mr. Lincoln say to those governing this republic?

This imagined letter draws from his own words, warnings, and wisdom—reassembled for a moment that echoes his own.

Here’s what he had to say.

To those entrusted with the sacred duty of governance,

I write not with ink, but with the voice of a nation’s conscience. Though my body lies still, my spirit endures in the institutions I once swore to preserve. I speak now not as a man of a party, but as a servant of the people and a witness to the cost of division.

You hold in your hands the reins of a government conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all are created equal. That government exists not for ornament, nor for power, but to do for the people what they cannot do alone: to protect the weak, to uplift the weary, to bind the wounds of a fractured land.

Yet I see with sorrow that the machinery of that government is halted—not by foreign invaders, but by domestic discord. The halls of power echo not with debate, but with silence. Services cease. Families suffer. And ambition, once yoked to duty, now strains against it.

Let me remind you: “The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves.” If you withhold food from the hungry, medicine from the sick, or shelter from the poor, you do not shrink government—you betray its purpose.

I knew the pain of losing a child. I would not wish it on any parent. If your policies deny care to the vulnerable, or vaccines to the innocent, then you have forgotten the very heart of public service.

And as you tear down the people’s house to build a ballroom—whether of marble or ego—know this: the grandeur of a nation lies not in chandeliers, but in the justice it delivers and the dignity it defends.

We must remember that the people of all the States are entitled to all the privileges and immunities of the citizen of the several States. We should bear this in mind, and act in such a way as to say nothing insulting or irritating. I would inculcate this idea, so that we may not, like Pharisees, set ourselves up to be better than other people.

I warned of such ambition before—not the kind that builds, but the kind that consumes. In 1838, I spoke of a danger not from abroad, but from within: a man who scorns the law, who seeks distinction not in service, but in destruction. “Towering genius disdains a beaten path,” I said. But genius without reverence is not leadership—it is license.

And in 1839, I gave that license a shape: a volcano seated in Washington, belching forth the lava of political corruption. That corruption flows still—into contracts, appointments, favors, and silence. It does not announce itself. It accumulates.

If you do not see it, you are doomed to be consumed by it.

I do not ask for perfection. I ask for principle. I do not demand uniformity. I plead for unity. The Union I gave my life to preserve was not a relic—it was a promise. Honor it—not with words, but with deeds.

Yours in the enduring cause of liberty, A. Lincoln

Food for thought.

Mac

🎩 Before he wrote to the leaders, he wrote to us. A warning not from the throne, but from the threshold. [Read Abraham Lincoln’s letter to the American people ]

📚 Bibliography: Lincoln’s Speeches and Writings

1. Lyceum Address

   • Title: “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions”

   • Date: January 27, 1838

   • Source: Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 1

   • Pages: pp. 108–115

2. Speech on the Sub-Treasury (a.k.a. “Lava Speech”)

   • Date: December 26, 1839

   • Location: Springfield, Illinois

   • Source: Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 1

   • Pages: pp. 150–157

3. Fragment on Government

   • Date: July 1, 1854 (approximate)

   • Source: Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 2

   • Page: 221

   • Note: This is a brief but powerful reflection on the moral purpose of government.

4. Reply to a Pennsylvania Delegation

   • Date: March 5, 1861

   • Source: Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 4

   • Page: 274