By the frame of the Government under which we live this same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief, and have with equal wisdom provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance no Administration by any extreme of wickedness or folly can very seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech (1861-03-04), Inaugural Address, Washington, D. C.
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