Abraham Lincoln on monarchy

Yesterday was Abraham Lincoln's birthday and two well-known American bloggers, one "liberal" and one "conservative" each decided to quote the great man. Interestingly, both quotes had Lincoln referring to monarchy as an evil that the United States should have left behind. Too bad that there isn't more such talk in American politics today. My watching of the TV show "The West Wing" makes me think that many Americans, even before 9/11 and George Bush's war, thought of the President as rightly surrounded by awe and veneration. I wonder what Lincoln would say about that?

Here is Lincoln on slavery as monarchy and Lincoln on war-mongering as the deceit of kings. And two comments on the latter.

The image above is from a monument at Alton, Illinois, which celebrates one of the famous debates between Lincoln and Stephen Douglas on what position the free states should take on the expansion of slavery. The US National Parks Service, of all governmental offices, makes the text of all the debates available here.