“Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion, can change the government.”
— Abraham Lincoln, December 10, 1856

Interesting quote. First notice the date 1856. Lincoln was out of office then and this would have occurred two years after passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act which allowed slavery into any territory in which a majority of people who accepted it.

Two years later Lincoln in his debates with Douglas would attack Kansas-Nebraska and the concept of popular sovereignty.

Once President Lincoln would take many actions which flew in the face of popular opinion.
Firing McClellan ( twice ), Sticking with Grant. The emancipation proclamation was wildly unpopular as was the Military draft which led to a whole series of Draft Riot the most violent and well know was the New York City draft riots.

In 1864 Lincoln was convinced he would lose re-election, yet he would not compromise or return to slavery hundreds of thousand of black soldiers even though that probably would have been in keeping with public opinion.

So, was Lincoln just stating a fact something that he observed to be true and maybe was troubled by in terms of say slavery etc.

Certainly once in office he would not always listen to popular opinion.

"Vox Populi, Vox Humbug"

General William Tecumseh Sheramn

Actually, I wanted to put the quote we heard at the meeting that was attributed to Lincoln at the top of the BB home page, so I did a Google search to make sure I got the wording exactly right.

Couldn't find it, although there were similar statements attributed to others. Rather than crediting what we all thought was a Lincoln quote to someone else, I figured a different — but similar one — from Abe would be better. But options included...

“I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.”
— Abraham Lincoln

“A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying ... that he is wiser today than yesterday.”
- Jonathan Swift

“Today is not yesterday; how can our works and thoughts, if they are always to be the fittest, continue always the same? Change, indeed, is painful, yet ever needful.”
— Thomas Carlyle

The neat thing about Great Quotations is that you can usually find at least two that will back up totally opposite sides of any argument, e.g., “Look before you leap” vs. “He who hesitates is lost.”

Ya pays yer money, ya takes yer choice.