Darwin or Lincoln?

[Dereich]

While others might have had similar ideas to Darwin (such as Alfred Russell Wallace) without the decades long research of Darwin the theory might not have been as accepted as it was. The theory of evolution was a hugely important landmark in scientific development.

Lincoln was only the (very eloquent) spokesperson for the already large and zealous abolitionist movement, and not even their first choice for that, being a compromise candidate for the 1860 election. The movement to abolish slavery would have gone on without Lincoln, but evolution would have been decades away from scientific prominence without Darwin.