It was not that surprising.....for it was Abraham Lincoln. The speech itself and the vocabulary used could be given today by a Ted Cruz or a Jim DeMint or a Mark Levin. It was given January 27, 1838, and Mr. Lincoln was only 28 years old. The audience was young men of the burgeoning Lyceum Movement which was an attempt by some to improve the overall fabric of society by means of programs and lectures. The title of the speech was The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions, and the venue was the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois. This can be easily Googled if you wish to read the entire speech.
Lincoln was very disturbed that mob rule was gaining momentum "from New England to Louisiana" over the rule of law. He listed some specific instances. In one, a group of gamblers were hanged just because they were gamblers, and in another a black man who was accused of murder was burned to death. The following quote from Lincoln's speech will hopefully shake you to the core..."Thus went on this process of hanging, from gamblers to negroes, from negroes to white citizens, and from those to strangers (going thither on business); 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." This statement is more than disturbing.
Lincoln looked back in this speech to the American Revolution when our Founding Fathers and the people used their passions to bring freedom and liberty but he then commented on the innate corruption of man and how passions without law can lead to mob rule. He worried about the very continuance of our government. It is from this speech that an often repeated quote from Abraham Lincoln emanated..."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."
He referred to a departed..."hardy, brave and patriotic people" who bequeathed to us our inheritance of civil and religious liberty and then contrasted that with his time where a "disregard for the law.....pervades the country." Acknowledging that isolated instances in themselves may not endanger our government, he pointed out that when a citizenry ignores the danger of the disregard for law...."the lawless in spirit (themselves) are encouraged to become lawless in practice." Disregard the law and you open the door to the most egregious evil. Today it is your rights that mean nothing to these people.....give them time and it will be your life that means nothing to them!
Abraham Lincoln was giving warning that if the people become divided with one half ignoring the encroachment of lawlessness and the other half suffering from that lawlessness, then the latter will lose their "attachment' to their government...."depend on it," Lincoln deduced "this government cannot last." He defended the patriotic spirit that Americans still had for their country, and that they would die for their country, but warned that already many of the "pillars" of liberty had crumbled away.
He supplied an answer as to what must be done..... the history of our nation's beginning should be...."read of, and recounted, so long as the bible shall be read"....and that "reverence for the constitution and laws" should never be abandoned!
It is more than remarkable that Abraham Lincoln was describing an indifference to law that we are experiencing today......a former First Lady/Secretary of State can do what she wants regardless of the law, an Attorney General can ignore some laws and prosecute those favored by his boss, government agencies can be used as tools of persecution, mobs can rule cities, the power of the ballot box can be usurped by establishment elites, and universities can regulate speech, inquiry and truth.....while the media ignores the danger of the disregard for law.
Lincoln was very disturbed that mob rule was gaining momentum "from New England to Louisiana" over the rule of law. He listed some specific instances. In one, a group of gamblers were hanged just because they were gamblers, and in another a black man who was accused of murder was burned to death. The following quote from Lincoln's speech will hopefully shake you to the core..."Thus went on this process of hanging, from gamblers to negroes, from negroes to white citizens, and from those to strangers (going thither on business); 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." This statement is more than disturbing.
Lincoln looked back in this speech to the American Revolution when our Founding Fathers and the people used their passions to bring freedom and liberty but he then commented on the innate corruption of man and how passions without law can lead to mob rule. He worried about the very continuance of our government. It is from this speech that an often repeated quote from Abraham Lincoln emanated..."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."
He referred to a departed..."hardy, brave and patriotic people" who bequeathed to us our inheritance of civil and religious liberty and then contrasted that with his time where a "disregard for the law.....pervades the country." Acknowledging that isolated instances in themselves may not endanger our government, he pointed out that when a citizenry ignores the danger of the disregard for law...."the lawless in spirit (themselves) are encouraged to become lawless in practice." Disregard the law and you open the door to the most egregious evil. Today it is your rights that mean nothing to these people.....give them time and it will be your life that means nothing to them!
Abraham Lincoln was giving warning that if the people become divided with one half ignoring the encroachment of lawlessness and the other half suffering from that lawlessness, then the latter will lose their "attachment' to their government...."depend on it," Lincoln deduced "this government cannot last." He defended the patriotic spirit that Americans still had for their country, and that they would die for their country, but warned that already many of the "pillars" of liberty had crumbled away.
He supplied an answer as to what must be done..... the history of our nation's beginning should be...."read of, and recounted, so long as the bible shall be read"....and that "reverence for the constitution and laws" should never be abandoned!
It is more than remarkable that Abraham Lincoln was describing an indifference to law that we are experiencing today......a former First Lady/Secretary of State can do what she wants regardless of the law, an Attorney General can ignore some laws and prosecute those favored by his boss, government agencies can be used as tools of persecution, mobs can rule cities, the power of the ballot box can be usurped by establishment elites, and universities can regulate speech, inquiry and truth.....while the media ignores the danger of the disregard for law.
