His Actual Words
The true quote from Abraham Lincoln was, “It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
This was far off from what “Your French Neighbors,” the alias of the vandals, had written. Lincoln had been speaking about freedom from the control of other countries, implying that the United States would have to defend itself or die trying.
But the group of criminals had interpreted it as a claim that the US would destroy itself.