Little, if anything, can be added to what has already been written and recorded of the willful, widespread violence and destruction taking place within our country. But if we hearken back to the chillingly prescient words of President Abraham Lincoln nearly two centuries ago in his Lyceum Address, we can find a vivid warning against and a simple prescription to heal our current national distress.
The full address is lengthy but so relevant and timely that it is well worth reading in its entirety. Lincoln delivered this speech in response to the murder of an African American man in St. Louis.
Excerpt from Lincoln's Lyceum Address:
The full address is lengthy but so relevant and timely that it is well worth reading in its entirety. Lincoln delivered this speech in response to the murder of an African American man in St. Louis.
Excerpt from Lincoln's Lyceum Address:
"...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..."
President Abraham Lincoln - The Lyceum Address
January 27, 1838
