| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
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| NUMBER: | 36416 |
| QUOTATION: | If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), U.S. president. speech, Jan. 27, 1837, Springfield, Illinois. The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 1, ed. Roy P. Basler (1953). |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia. |
| WORKS: | Lincoln Collection. |
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| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
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