Of the People, By the People, For the People

Eleven words that define self-government as completely as anyone has managed. Of the people: it belongs to them. By the people: they run it. For the people: it exists to serve them. Lincoln spoke them at a cemetery, over the graves of men who had died to keep the thing alive, and framed the whole war as a test of whether such a government could endure at all. The republic's purpose, stated at its lowest moment, in a sentence a child can hold and a nation can be measured against.