I hold that if the Almighty had ever made a set of men that should do all the eating and none of the work, he would have made them with mouths only and no hands, and if he had ever made another class that he intended should do all the work and none of the eating, he would have made them without mouths and with all hands.

Lincoln’s image argues from “design” and common sense against a social order in which one class consumes while another labors without reward. By imagining God creating people as only mouths or only hands, he ridicules the notion that exploitation is natural or divinely sanctioned. The line fits Lincoln’s recurring defense of “free labor”: the belief that work should be connected to opportunity, self-improvement, and the right to enjoy the fruits of one’s effort. It also functions as a moral critique of slavery and rigid class hierarchy, insisting that human dignity requires both labor and the ability to partake in its benefits.