Select the correct answer.
Read these excerpts from "Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address" and President Lyndon B. Johnson's "We Shall Overcome" speech.
Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Lyndon B. Johnson's "We Shall Overcome"
"Our fathers believed that if this noble view of the rights of man was to flourish, it must be rooted in democracy. The most basic right of all was the right to choose your own leaders. The history of this country, in large measure, is the history of the expansion of that right to all of our people. Many of the issues of civil rights are very complex and most difficult. But about this there can and should be no argument. Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote. There is no reason which can excuse the denial of that right. There is no duty which weighs more heavily on us than the duty we have to ensure that right...Experience has clearly shown that the existing process of law cannot overcome systematic and ingenious discrimination. No law that we now have on the books—and I have helped to put three of them there—can ensure the right to vote when local officials are determined to deny it. In such a case our duty must be clear to all of us. The Constitution says that no person shall be kept from voting because of his race or his color. We have all sworn an oath before God to support and to defend that Constitution. We must now act in obedience to that oath."
How do Lincoln and Johnson address the theme of freedom similarly?
A. Both men call for others to take action to support those who cannot fight for themselves.
B. Both men refer to the founding principles of the nation as reason to fight to preserve rights.
C. Both men believe in the power of our government to step in and uphold the values of the nation.
D. Both men criticize the work the founding fathers did to develop the ideals of the country.
