The New York Public Library (42nd & 5th Ave) is currently showing a collection of rare manuscripts and books — ranging from Dante to Jefferson and Kerouac.
This copy of the Declaration of Independence is one of five original manuscripts.
At a time when U.S. government officials talk of separating the nation’s “interests” and “values,” the words of Abraham Lincoln (commenting on the Declaration of Independence) remain as true as ever:
“This sentiment was the fulfillment of an ancient dream, which men have held through all time, that they might one day shake off their chains and find freedom in the brotherhood of life.”
In 1938, New York Times columnist Brooks Atkinson commenting on Lincoln’s statement said — “He concludes with a principle, both personal and general that should lie at the core of all our thinking”: “Let us live to prove that we can cultivate the natural world that is about us, and the intellectual and moral world that is within us, so that we may secure an individual, social and political prosperity, whose course shall be forward, and which, while the earth endures, shall not pass away.”
Analysis: There is no future in separating ‘interests’ from morality, as so many are doing today.
LOTUS EDITIONS 