Over the weekend, Barack Obama embarked on a train trip from Philadelphia to Washington reminiscent of Abraham Lincoln’s train journey from Springfield prior to his inauguration. As the New York Times says, Obama’s pre-inaugural journey “is another nod to history, kicking off a week when the parallels between the 16th and 44th presidents will be plentiful.” While Obama’s train slowed down to accommodate throngs of cheering supporters along the way, the Philadelphia to Washington leg of Lincoln’s journey was conducted under the cover of darkness because of a potential assassination plot. While Lincoln delivered his inaugural address, Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens had already been installed as leaders of an open rebellion, and Confederate agents likely plotted the destruction of the United States within the capital city. Perhaps Obama’s fascination with Lincoln in this bicentennial year of his birth will cause Americans to take a look beyond Lincoln’s clothing, favorite foods, and circumstances of birth, to the natural rights philosophy that governed every aspect of the man’s political thought. Before Lincoln left Philadelphia for Washington on the aforementioned train trip, he gave a speech at the site of the founding of the first government to be grounded on the proposition that all men are created equal:

Lincoln’s affirmation of the principles of the Declaration of Independence recognize the self-evident truth that there is no distinction between any two men that is as great as the difference between men and beasts or men and God. Lincoln shared this view, along with the corresponding principle that slavery is a moral and political evil, with many in the Founding generation.In the past, Barack Obama has avoided saying that the “natural rights” found in the Declaration of Independence were true and binding on governments today. As Obama left Philadelphia by train over the weekend, he said: