Lincoln's Lyceum Address on Mob Rule and Rule of Law

Abraham Lincoln, born on February 12, 1809, was struck down in his 56th year, after saving the American constitutional Union and earning his place as the most beloved and greatest of America's Presidents. The Lyceum Address, one of Lincoln's earliest published speeches, is studied for its indications of his later public policies. Lincoln was 28 -- halfway through his life -- when he gave the speech. He had recently moved from a frontier village to Springfield, Illinois. William Herndon, who became Lincoln's law partner in 1844, wrote of the event : "we had a society in Springfield, which contained and commanded all the culture and talent of the place....its meetings were public, and reflected great credit on the community....The speech was brought out by the burning in St. Louis a few weeks before, by a mob, of a negro. Lincoln took this incident as a sort of text for his remarks....The address was published...and created for the young orator a reputation...beyond the limits of the locality in which he lived." ~~~~~ Dear readers, to honor Lincoln -- and reflect on America's current situation -- here is an excerpt from "The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions" : Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, January 27, 1838. ~~~~~ "We, the American People, find...ourselves in the peaceful possession, of the fairest portion of the earth....under the government of a system of political institutions, conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty, than any...a legacy bequeathed us, by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamented and departed race of ancestors. Theirs was the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess themselves, and through themselves, us, of this goodly land;...'tis ours only, to transmit to the latest generation that fate shall permit the world to know. This task of gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity, and love for our species in general, all imperatively require us faithfully to perform. ~~~ How then shall we perform it?--At what point shall we expect the approach of danger?...Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never!--All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide. ~~~ There is...something of ill-omen, amongst us....the increasing disregard for law which pervades the country; the growing disposition to substitute the wild and furious passions, in lieu of the sober judgment of Courts; and the worse than savage mobs, for the executive ministers of justice. This disposition is awfully fearful in any community; and that it now exists in ours, though grating to our feelings to admit, it would be a violation of truth, and an insult to our intelligence, to deny. Accounts of outrages committed by mobs, form the everyday news....They have pervaded the country....by the operation of this mobocractic spirit...now abroad in the land, the strongest bulwark of any Government...may effectually be broken down and destroyed--I mean the attachment of the People. Whenever...the vicious portion of the population shall be permitted to gather in bands...and burn churches, ravage and rob provision-stores, throw printing presses into rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure...depend on it, this Government cannot last.... men of sufficient talent and ambition will...seize the opportunity...and overturn that fair fabric, which for the last half century, has been the fondest hope, of the lovers of freedom, throughout the world."