“GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE”

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26868, 22 October 1952, Page 8

“GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE”

Origin Of Famous Phrase WYCLIFFE CREDITED WITH AUTHORSHIP (New Zealand Press Association) BLENHEIM, October 21. Did Abraham Lincoln plagiarise John Wycliffe when he spoke the now famous words, “government of the people, by the people, for the people? Their origin is almost universally attributed to Lincoln, who used them in his Gettysburg address. The leader of the Salvation Army in New Zealand (Lieutenant-Commis-sioner R. A. Hoggard) says the words were used about 400 years before the Gettysburg address. Wycliffe, according to Lieutenant-Commissioner Hoggard, wrote them into the introduction of his translation of the Bible in the thirteenth century. Lieutenant-Commissioner Hoggard, who, before coming to New Zealand two years ago. was second in command of the Central United States territory of . the Salvation Army, said that Americans were “not always too happy” to be disillusioned about Lincoln’s use Of the words.

On August *2B, 1944, “The Press,” in a leading article on the war-time leadership of Mr Winston Churchill, and on Britain’s achievements when she had been fighting almost alone, mentioned the confusion about the origin of Lincoln’s words. The article said, inter alia: “As we draw towards the end of an exhausting war. Britons may recall with sober pride, others with respect at least, that that fine concept of democracy—government of the people, by the people, for the people—had its origin not in President Lincoln’s noble Gettysburg dedication, but in the introduction to John Wycliffe’s translation of the Bible into English, in 1384: “This Bible is for the government of the people, by the people, and for the people/* -