Lincoln's Vision for America

Lincoln's Vision for America. . On July 4, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln delivered a message to a special session of Congress called to address the armed rebellion against the United States that had begun in April., After sharing the history of the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C., The president laid out what, in his view, each side was fighting for. Inspired by the still-elusive ideals outlined in the Declaration of Independence, he declared that the United States the war was:, "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.", The Lincoln who wrote these words was a man of his time. At the beginning of the war he did support full civil and political rights for people of color or for women. The "fiery trial" of the Civil War transformed Lincoln's understanding of the meaning of true freedom for all., Lincoln's Vision for America, presented at Bicentennial Plaza - A REALTOR Community Partnership, brings together stories of Springfield events and the people who shaped them, all working toward his goal, to in the fullest sense offer all Americans a free start a fair chance in life.