His ideas helped in many ways but most importantly his belief in Religious and freedom from government sponsored religion influenced the 1st Amendment to the Constitution. The 1st Amendment (Bill of Rights) protects citizens from having their government dictate religious practices.
Medieval age lasted for more than thousand years. The medieval age is formerly proclaimed to be Dark Age not because it was dark but because nothing was known.
After the collapse of Greek and Roman civilizations, the whole of Europe came under the supremacy of the churches at that which gained control. It was called as nothing was known or studied about the political structure that prevailed during that period.
Dark Age does not actually refer to the time when people spent much of their time in darkness. It simply means that nothing came into light from the period when great civilizations came to an end.
1. I choose the Emancipation proclamation.
The basis for a democratic country is the guarantee of human rights for all of its citizens and allowing all citizens the right to participate in the government.
Freeing other humans from slavery indicates his will to truly bring equality for all people int he nations, because he knew that slavery robbed the very essence of human rights from the people together with their dignity.
2. I compared it with Habeas Corpus
Habeas Corpus allow prisoners to report unlawful treatment when they're in their sentence. Indeed this represent Lincoln' willingness to preserve human rights, but the impact is nowhere near the Emancipation of Slavery that affect millions of human beings.
3. I belive Barrack Obama would be a good example.
Despite his blunder in adressing several economic issues in united states, General population believe that Obama always tried his best in perserving human rights and democracy. (could be seen by programs such as HAPA that give the right for children that born in united states by non-citizzens the right to be a legal citizen)