The standard text of the address does not agree exactly either with the
original written form or with the form in which it was delivered, but
it is a combination of these, made by Lincoln a few days later. In the
contemporary newspaper reports it was variously referred to as an
address, a speech, and remarks.
_Government of the people_. The thought contained in this sentence was
not original with Lincoln, but it has been traced back through several
centuries. It was probably suggested to Lincoln by the following
passage in an address by Theodore Parker, which he is known to have
read: "Democracy is direct self-government over all the people, for all
the people, by all the people."