Abraham Lincoln was far too skilled an orator to be reduced to the 128kbps crudeness of Twitter. But I think too many people have forgotten just what an incredible speaker he was, and the rarest of politicians: someone who could inspire through sincerity. (1/many)
He was the best of all of us, and on his birthday, I thought I’d excerpt one of his lesser-known addresses, because it contains universal truths that we should all try to remember. (2/x)
Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois:
"...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." (3/x)
"...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." (3/x)
"...they are a legacy bequeathed us, by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamented and departed race of ancestors. Theirs was the task...to uprear upon its hills and its valleys, a political edifice of liberty and equal rights." (4/x)
"...'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." (5/x)
"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." (6/x)
"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." (7/x)
"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;" (8/x)
"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." (9/x)
"When men take it in their heads today, to hang gamblers, or burn murderers, they should recollect, that...acting upon the example they set, the mob of tomorrow, may, and probably will, hang or burn some of them by the very same mistake." (10/x)
"...The innocent...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." (11/x)
"This 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...they thus become absolutely unrestrained." (12/x)
"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." (13/x)
"Yet...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..." (14/x)
"...and to that, sooner or later, it must come." (15/x)
"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." (16/x)
"...As the patriots of '76 did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every American remember that to violate the law..." (17/x)
"is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the character of his own, and his children's liberty." (18/x)
"Let reverence for the laws...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." (19/x)
"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?" (20/x)
"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." (21/x)
"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." (22/x)
"...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." (23/x)
"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." (24/x)
"But those histories are gone. ...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." (25/x)
"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." (26/x)
"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." (27/x)
"Let those materials be moulded into general intelligence, sound morality, and in particular, a reverence for the constitution and laws." (28/x)
"& 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."
(FIN.)
Postscript: Lincoln delivered this speech in January of 1838, a week before he turned *29 years old* -- before he ever stood for election to any office. He was born great, and became greater as he matured. The nation is phenomenally lucky to have had him.
@threadreaderapp Please unroll.
