| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: toward the larger interests of his county and his State. An
election for members of the Illinois legislature was to take
place in August, 1832. Sangamon County was entitled to four
representatives. Residents of the county over twenty-one years of
age were eligible to election, and audacious as it might appear,
Lincoln determined to be a candidate.
The people of New Salem, like those of all other Western towns,
took a keen interest in politics; "politics" meaning, in that
time and place, not only who was to be President or governor, but
concerning itself with questions which came much closer home to
dwellers on the frontier. "Internal improvements," as they were
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: the most coquettishly sweet and tender tones. Praise of their beauty,
based upon comparisons, flatters the most sensitive self-esteem. A
movement of their eyebrows, the slightest play of the eye, the curling
of the lip, instils a sort of terror in those whose lives and
happiness depend upon their favor. A maiden inexperienced in love and
easily moved by words may allow herself to be seduced; but in dealing
with women of this sort, a man must be able, like M. de Jaucourt, to
refrain from crying out when, in hiding him in a closet, the lady's
maid crushes two of his fingers in the crack of a door. To love one of
these omnipotent sirens is to stake one's life, is it not? And that,
perhaps, is why we love them so passionately! Such was the Comtesse de
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from United States Declaration of Independence: of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts
be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary
for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate
and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation
till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended,
he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of
large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish
the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right
United States Declaration of Independence |
