Abraham Lincoln was 28 when he gave the
following speech at the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois. His words
presaged by 180 years the political and social conditions that threaten our 21st
century democracy. I urge my readers to learn more about the causes and
underlying conditions that prompted the young Lincoln’s remarks, but let it be
said here that his vision for the peril our republic faced in 1838 is startling
real today, and that an unharnessed leader who believes himself a genius is
working daily to knock down every pillar of conscience and law upon which our
country was founded. I have not changed any of Lincoln’s words, though I have
italicized a few, and highlighted, in either red—key phrase of danger—or blue—key
phrase of consideration—some of his text out of my own interest.
“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.”
The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions:
Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois
January 27, 1838
Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois
January 27, 1838
As a subject for the remarks of the
evening, the perpetuation of our political institutions, is
selected.
In the great journal of things happening
under the sun, we, the American People, find our account running, under date of
the nineteenth century of the Christian era. We find ourselves in the peaceful
possession, of the fairest portion of the earth, as regards extent of
territory, fertility of soil, and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under
the government of a system of political institutions, conducing more
essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty, than any of which the
history of former times tells us. We, when mounting the stage of existence,
found ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled
not in the acquirement or establishment of them--they are a legacy bequeathed
us, by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamented
and departed race of ancestors. Their's was the task (and nobly they performed
it) to possess themselves, and through themselves, us, of this goodly land; and
to uprear upon its hills and its valleys, a political edifice of liberty and
equal rights; 'tis ours only, to transmit these, the former, unprofaned by the
foot of an invader; the latter, undecayed by the lapse of time and untorn by
usurpation, 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? By what means shall we fortify
against it?-- 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.
I hope I am over wary; but if I am not, there
is, even now, something of ill-omen, amongst us. I mean 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 every-day news of the
times. They have pervaded the country, from New England to Louisiana;--they are
neither peculiar to the eternal snows of the former, nor the burning suns of
the latter;--they are not the creature of climate-- neither are they confined
to the slave-holding, or the non-slave- holding States. Alike, they spring up
among the pleasure hunting masters of Southern slaves, and the order loving
citizens of the land of steady habits.--Whatever, then, their cause may be, it
is common to the whole country.
It would be tedious, as well as useless,
to recount the horrors of all of them. Those happening in the State of
Mississippi, and at St. Louis, are, perhaps, the most dangerous in example and
revolting to humanity. In the Mississippi case, they first commenced by hanging
the regular gamblers; a set of men, certainly not following for a livelihood, a
very useful, or very honest occupation; but one which, so far from being
forbidden by the laws, was actually licensed by an act of the Legislature,
passed but a single year before. Next, negroes, suspected of conspiring to raise
an insurrection, were caught up and hanged in all parts of the State: then,
white men, supposed to be leagued with the negroes; and finally, strangers,
from neighboring States, going thither on business, were, in many instances
subjected to the same fate. Thus went on this process of hanging, from gamblers to negroes, from
negroes to white citizens, and from these to strangers; till, dead men were
seen literally dangling from the boughs of trees upon every road side; and in
numbers almost sufficient, to rival the native Spanish moss of the country, as
a drapery of the forest.
Turn, then, to that horror-striking
scene at St. Louis. A single victim was only sacrificed there. His story is
very short; and is, perhaps, the most highly tragic, if anything of its length,
that has ever been witnessed in real life. A mulatto man, by the name of
McIntosh, was seized in the street, dragged to the suburbs of the city, chained
to a tree, and actually burned to death; and all within a single hour from the
time he had been a freeman, attending to his own business, and at peace with
the world.
Such are the effects of mob law; and
such as the scenes, becoming more and more frequent in this land so lately
famed for love of law and order; and the stories of which, have even now grown
too familiar, to attract any thing more, than an idle remark.
But you are, perhaps, ready to ask, "What has this to do with the
perpetuation of our political institutions?" I answer, it has much to do
with it. Its direct consequences are, comparatively speaking, but a small evil;
and much of its danger consists, in the proneness of our minds, to regard its
direct, as its only consequences. Abstractly considered, the hanging of
the gamblers at Vicksburg, was of but little consequence. They constitute a
portion of population, that is worse than useless in any community; and their
death, if no pernicious example be set by it, is never matter of reasonable
regret with any one. If they were annually swept, from the stage of existence,
by the plague or small pox, honest men would, perhaps, be much profited, by the
operation.--Similar too, is the correct reasoning, in regard to the burning of
the negro at St. Louis. He had forfeited his life, by the perpetration of an
outrageous murder, upon one of the most worthy and respectable citizens of the
city; and had not he died as he did, he must have died by the sentence of the
law, in a very short time afterwards. As to him alone, it was as well the way
it was, as it could otherwise have been.--But the example in either case, was
fearful.--When
men take it in their heads to day, to hang gamblers, or burn murderers, they
should recollect, that, in the confusion usually attending such transactions,
they will be as likely to hang or burn some one who is neither a gambler nor a
murderer as one who is; and that, acting upon the example they set, the mob of
to-morrow, may, and probably will, hang or burn some of them by the very same
mistake. And not only so; the innocent, those who have ever
set their faces against violations of law in every shape, alike with the
guilty, fall victims to the ravages of mob law; and thus it goes on, step by
step, till all the walls erected for the defense of the persons and property of
individuals, are trodden down, and disregarded. But all this even, is
not the full extent of the evil.—
By
such examples, by instances of the perpetrators of such acts going unpunished,
the lawless in spirit, are encouraged to become lawless in practice; and having
been used to no restraint, but dread of punishment, they thus become,
absolutely unrestrained.--Having ever regarded Government as their deadliest
bane, they make a jubilee of the suspension of its operations; and pray for
nothing so much, as its total annihilation.
While, on the other hand, good men, men
who love tranquility, who desire to abide by the laws, and enjoy their
benefits, who would gladly spill their blood in the defense of their country;
seeing their property destroyed; their families insulted, and their lives
endangered; their persons injured; and seeing nothing in prospect that
forebodes a change for the better; become tired of, and disgusted with, a
Government that offers them no protection; and are not much averse to a change
in which they imagine they have nothing to lose. Thus, then, by the operation
of this mobocractic spirit, which all must admit, is now abroad in the land,
the strongest bulwark of any Government, and particularly of those constituted
like ours, may effectually be broken down and destroyed--I mean the attachment of the People.
Whenever this effect shall be produced
among us; whenever the vicious portion of population shall be permitted to gather
in bands of hundreds and thousands, and burn churches, ravage and rob
provision-stores, throw printing presses into rivers, shoot editors, and hang
and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure, and with impunity; depend on it, this
Government cannot last.
By such things, the feelings of the best
citizens will become more or less alienated from it; and thus it will be left
without friends, or with too few, and those few too weak, to make their
friendship effectual. At such a time and under such circumstances, men of
sufficient talent and ambition will not be wanting to seize the opportunity,
strike the blow, and overturn that fair fabric, which for the last half
century, has been the fondest hope, of the lovers of freedom, throughout the
world.
I know the American People are much attached
to their Government; I know they would suffer much for its
sake;--I know they would endure evils long and patiently, before they would
ever think of exchanging it for another. Yet, notwithstanding all this, if the laws be continually despised and
disregarded, if their rights to be secure in their persons and property, are
held by no better tenure than the caprice of a mob, the alienation of their
affections from the Government is the natural consequence; and to that, sooner
or later, it must come.
Here then, is one point at which danger
may be expected.
The question recurs, "how shall we fortify against it?"
The answer is simple. Let every American, every lover of
liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the
Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country;
and never to tolerate their violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six
did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the
Constitution and Laws,
let
every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor;--let every
man remember that to violate the law, is to trample on the blood of his father,
and to tear the character of his own, and his children's liberty. Let reverence
for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that
prattles on her lap--let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in
colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;--let
it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced
in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the
nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the
gay, of all sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly
upon its altars.
While ever a state of feeling, such as
this, shall universally, or even, very generally prevail throughout the nation,
vain will be every effort, and fruitless every attempt, to subvert our national
freedom.
When I so pressingly urge a strict
observance of all the laws, let me not be understood as saying there are no bad
laws, nor that grievances may not arise, for the redress of which, no legal
provisions have been made.--I mean to say no such thing. But I do mean to say,
that, although bad laws, if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible,
still while they continue in force, for the sake of example, they should be
religiously observed. So also in unprovided cases. If such arise, let proper
legal provisions be made for them with the least possible delay; but, till
then, let them, if not too intolerable, be borne with.
There is no grievance that is a fit
object of redress by mob law. In any case that arises, as for instance, the
promulgation of abolitionism, one of two positions is necessarily true; that
is, the thing is right within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of
all law and all good citizens; or, it is wrong, and therefore proper to be
prohibited by legal enactments; and in neither case, is the interposition of
mob law, either necessary, justifiable, or excusable.
But, it may be asked, why suppose danger to our political institutions?
Have we not preserved them for more than fifty years? And why may we not for
fifty times as long?
We hope there is no sufficient reason.
We hope all dangers may be overcome; but to conclude that no danger may ever
arise, would itself be extremely dangerous. There
are now, and will hereafter be, many causes, dangerous in their tendency, which
have not existed heretofore; and which are not too insignificant to merit
attention. That our government should have been
maintained in its original form from its establishment until now, is not much
to be wondered at. It had many props to support it through that period, which
now are decayed, and crumbled away. Through that period, it was felt by all, to
be an undecided experiment; now, it is understood to be a successful
one.--Then, all that sought celebrity and fame, and distinction, expected to
find them in the success of that experiment. Their all was
staked upon it:-- their destiny was inseparably linked with
it. Their ambition aspired to display before an admiring world, a practical
demonstration of the truth of a proposition, which had hitherto been
considered, at best no better, than problematical; namely, the
capability of a people to govern themselves. If they succeeded, they were
to be immortalized; their names were to be transferred to counties and cities,
and rivers and mountains; and to be revered and sung, and toasted through all
time. If they failed, they were to be called knaves and fools, and fanatics for
a fleeting hour; then to sink and be forgotten. They succeeded. The experiment
is successful; and thousands have won their deathless names in making it so.
But the game is caught; and I believe it is true, that with the catching, end
the pleasures of the chase. This field of glory is harvested, and the crop is
already appropriated.
But new reapers will arise, and they, too, will seek a field. It is to deny, what the
history of the world tells us is true, to suppose that men of ambition and
talents will not continue to spring up amongst us. And,
when they do, they will as naturally seek the gratification of their ruling
passion, as others have so done before them. The question then, is, can that
gratification be found in supporting and maintaining an edifice that has been
erected by others? Most certainly it cannot. Many great and good men
sufficiently qualified for any task they should undertake, may ever be found,
whose ambition would inspire to nothing beyond a seat in Congress, a
gubernatorial or a presidential chair; but such belong not to the
family of the lion, or the tribe of the eagle. What! think you these
places would satisfy an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon?--Never! Towering
genius distains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.--It sees no
distinction in adding story to story, upon the monuments of fame,
erected to the memory of others. It denies that it is glory
enough to serve under any chief. It scorns to tread in the
footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts
and burns for distinction; and, if possible, it will have it, whether at the
expense of emancipating slaves, or enslaving freemen.
Is it unreasonable then to expect, that
some man possessed of the loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to
push it to its utmost stretch, will at some time, spring up among us? And when
such a one does, it will require the people to be united with each other,
attached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent, to successfully
frustrate his designs.
Distinction
will be his paramount object, and although he would as willingly, perhaps more
so, acquire it by doing good as harm; yet, that opportunity being past, and
nothing left to be done in the way of building up, he would set boldly to the
task of pulling down.
Here, then, is a probable case, highly
dangerous, and such a one as could not have well existed heretofore.
Another reason which once was;
but which, to the same extent, is now no more, has done much in
maintaining our institutions thus far. I mean the powerful influence which the
interesting scenes of the revolution had upon the passions of
the people as distinguished from their judgment. By this influence, the
jealousy, envy, and avarice, incident to our nature, and so common to a state
of peace, prosperity, and conscious strength, were, for the time, in a great
measure smothered and rendered inactive; while the deep-rooted principles of hate,
and the powerful motive of revenge, instead of being turned against
each other, were directed exclusively against the British nation. And thus,
from the force of circumstances, the basest principles of our nature, were
either made to lie dormant, or to become the active agents in the advancement of
the noblest cause--that of establishing and maintaining civil and religious
liberty.
But this state of feeling must
fade, is fading, has faded, with the circumstances that produced it.
I do not mean to say, that the scenes of
the revolution are now or ever will be
entirely forgotten; but that like every thing else, they must fade upon the
memory of the world, and grow more and more dim by the lapse of time. In
history, we hope, they will be read of, and recounted, so long as the bible
shall be read;-- but even granting that they will, their influence cannot
be what it heretofore has been. Even then, they cannot be so
universally known, nor so vividly felt, as they were by the generation just
gone to rest. At the close of that struggle, nearly every adult male had been a
participator in some of its scenes. The consequence was, that of those scenes,
in the form of a husband, a father, a son or brother, a living history was
to be found in every family-- a history bearing the indubitable testimonies of its own authenticity, in
the limbs mangled, in the scars of wounds received, in the midst of the very
scenes related--a history, too, that could be read and understood alike by all,
the wise and the ignorant, the learned and the unlearned.--But those histories
are gone. They can be read no more forever. They were a
fortress of strength; but, what invading foeman could never do, the
silent artillery of time has done; the leveling of its walls. They
are gone.--They were a forest of giant oaks; but the
all-resistless hurricane has swept over them, and left only, here and there, a
lonely trunk, despoiled of its verdure, shorn of its foliage; unshading and
unshaded, to murmur in a few gentle breezes, and to combat with its mutilated
limbs, a few more ruder storms, then to sink, and be no more.
They were the pillars of
the temple of liberty; and now, that they have crumbled away, that temple must
fall, unless we, their descendants, supply their places with other pillars,
hewn from the solid quarry of sober reason. Passion has helped us; but can do
so no more. It will in future be our enemy. Reason, cold, calculating,
unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and
defence.--Let those materials be moulded into general intelligence,
sound morality, and in particular, a reverence for the constitution
and laws: and, that we improved to the last; that we remained free to the
last; that we revered his name to the last; that, during his long sleep, we
permitted no hostile foot to pass over or desecrate his resting place; shall be
that which to learn the last trump shall awaken our WASHINGTON.
Upon these let the proud fabric of
freedom rest, as the rock of its basis; and as truly as has been said of the
only greater institution, "the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it.
