Folks who look at our divided country and think they have absolutely nothing in common with people who don’t share their views or race or culture or financial status or educational level need only look to Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson to find their assumptions may be wrong.

This remarkable truth was the core message delivered to a standing-room-only crowd of over 200 at Allentown’s Lehigh Valley Heritage Museum recently.

The museum, part of the Lehigh County Historical Society, hosted America’s foremost Lincoln scholar, Harold Holzer, for a presentation and book signing at its 432 W. Walnut St., location.

He explained how the third president, Jefferson, and the 16th, Lincoln, who never met each other, had more in common than their vast differences would portend.

Jefferson, primary author of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, which declared the American colonies free from England, promoted universal and religious rights for all.

Lincoln, inspired by Jefferson’s Declaration, which Lincoln saw as the standard for a free society, wrote his own freedom document in 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in Confederate states.

The irony, of course, is that Jefferson’s principles espoused in the Declaration did not extend to his personal life.

Apparently he did not believe the “unalienable rights” pertained to Blacks, for he owned hundreds of slaves over the years.

Although Lincoln considered Jefferson’s character repulsive, he shared the third president’s aspiration to freedom and believed the Declaration of Independence established core principles of American democracy.

According to Holzer, the Declaration was “Lincoln’s American scripture, his own political religion.”

Both presidents found great value in the Declaration’s words and relied on the document for guidance and political resolve.

Lincoln celebrated Jefferson’s Declaration that all should be equal, and he thought the country could be saved on this principle and become an ideal democracy.

Both men are revered in history for writing brilliant, dramatic freedom documents that had to be fought for, and Lincoln was greatly inspired by Jeffersonian principles.

But, in reality, they were galaxies apart in many ways.

Jefferson was born into wealth and lived on a plantation. Lincoln rose from poverty and was born in a log cabin.

Jefferson was educated at preparatory schools and graduated from the College of William and Mary in Virginia.

Lincoln attended lab schools, similar to one-room school houses, and he did not go to college.

Surprisingly, Holzer said Jefferson died $100,000 in debt, and Lincoln left a $100,000 estate when he was assassinated.

Jefferson owned human beings, whereas Lincoln was repelled by slavery.

Yet several remarkable similarities existed between the men.

Both were elected to their state’s legislature at age 25. Both were avid readers. And both were inventors.

Lincoln’s invention demonstrated his interest in technology and mechanics. He is the only U.S. president to hold a patent.

Lincoln had worked with riverboats in his younger years and was familiar with the boats getting stuck on sandbars.

So he invented a device that would lift ships in shallow waters without having to unload their cargo.

A scale model of the device, which Lincoln whittled himself, is in the Smithsonian Institution.

Jefferson is noted for several inventions, including the portable writing desk, revolving bookstand and moldboard plow to lift and turn soil.

Most of all, both presidents prized liberty.

Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence liberated the American colonies from English rule.

Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation began the process of liberating slaves.

He was the first president to advocate for Black voting rights.

Our free society exists today thanks to these two men.

Without Jefferson and Lincoln, “there would be no America,” Holzer asserted.