Connecticut western news., 1922-02-16
LINCOLN F0RESAW
 POSSIBLE DANGER
URGED NECESSITY FOR RESPECT
 FOR LAW AND ORDER
Words of the Great Emancipator Els. pecialIy Significant in the Turmoil
 of the World Today.
YVES SsW 'aD

In his first great patriotic speech now too little known Abraham Lincoln forecast many of the present day political and social conditions. The theme of this speech was the danger to American institutions that would come from within and the need for a greater respect for law and order.
 'In the great journal of things hap pening under the sum-" said MT. Lin coin, i've, the American people, find our account running the 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 system of political in- stitutions conducting more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty than any of which the history of former times tells us. .# .s.
 eve, when mounting the stage of existence, found ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental bles- sings. We toiled not in the. acquire ment or establishment of them, they are a legacy bequeathed to us by once 3 hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now Iamented and departed, race of our ancestors Theirs was the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess themselves, and through themselves us, of this goodly land, and to uprear ;A,x Q edifce 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 usurpa- tion-to the latest generation that fate shall permit the world to know. This task of gratitude to our fathers, jus tice to ourselves, duty to posterity and love for our species in general all imperatively require us faithfully to perform. .s,.~. ...
 +How. then, shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect the ap- proach 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 excepteO in their military chest, with Bonaparte for 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 Is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, If it ever reaches us 1t must spring up amongst us; 1t cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be it's author and finisher. As a nation of free men we must live through all time, or die by suicide" "'-' ,. After giving some examples of the evil effects on the innocent as we'll as the guilty, which occurred in the operation of mob violences, MT. Lin coin continued:
 "I know the American people are much attached to their government; l know they would suffer much for its sake; I know they would endure evils long and patiently before they would eyer think of exchanging It for another yet, notwithstanding all this, if the laws be continually disregarded and despised, 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 affec- tions from the government is the natural consequence, and to that sooner or later it must come:
 Here, then, is one point from which danger must be expected. a,a
 "The question recurs, How shall we fortify against it|I EEr
 "rhe answer is simple. Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to his posterity swear by the blood of the Revolution never te violate in the least particular the laws