Originally Posted by
domer76
There is no inference. The words are right there.
Let's get his more complete quote. I'll highlight the areas that you are struggling with.
"I think the authors of that notable instrument intended to include all men, but they did not mean to declare all men equal in all respects…. They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth, that all were then actually enjoying that equality, or yet, that they were about to confer it immediately upon them…
They meant simply to declare the right, so that the enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances should permit."
In other words, Lincoln's opinion. And his opinion was that it was an obviously untrue that all people were enjoying equality. "As fast as circumstances should permit"? We're still waitng. When do you suppose THAT will occur? In another 250 years?
I am having no problem with it. You are. You are inferring that they intended to assert that all men were then actually enjoying that equality or that they were about to confer it immediately upon them. No, as Lincoln clearly suggests, they did not intend to assert that.
I am not sure what word you are having trouble with but Lincoln's point went over your head.
Leviticus 19:33 And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not do him wrong. 34 The stranger that sojourneth with you shall be unto you as the homeborn among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
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