Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1922-02-09
LINCOLN F0RESAW
POSSIBLE DANGER
URGED NECESSITY FOR RESPECT
FOR LAW AND ORDER
Words of the Great Emancipator Es-
peciaiiy Significant in the Turmoil
of the World Today.

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 Mr.. Lin
coin, s'we, the American people, find.
our account running the date of the
4 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 in
stitutions conducting more essentially
to the ends of civil and religious
liberty than any of which the history
of former times tells us.
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
Aare a legacy bequeathed to us by once
hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now
lamented and departed, race OF our
ancestors. Theirs was the task (and
nobly they performed I'D to possess
themselves. and through themselves
us. of this goody 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 nndecaHed by the
lapse of time and uniform 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 e posterity
and love for our species In General all
imperatiyely require us faithfully to
perform.
'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
4 at a blow? Never!
"AlI the armies Of Europe, Asia, and
Africa combined with all the treasure
Of the earth (our own excepted) In
their military chest, with a Bonaparte
for a commander, could not by force
take a drink from the Ohio or make
a track on the Blue ridge in a trial o.
q thousand years
"At what point is the approach OF
danger to be expected? l answer, i
it ever reaches us it must spring Ut
amongst us; it cannot come from
abroad. If destruction be our lot We
must ourselves be its author ant
finisher. AS 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 well al
the guilty, which occurred in thu
operation of mob violences, Mr.. Lin
coin continued:
81 know the American people arr
much attached to their government;
know they would suffer much for it,
sake; I know they would endure evils
long and patiently before they would
eyer think of exchanging it for anothe
yet, Notwithstanding all this, If thu
laws be continually disregarded ant
i despised if their rights to be secure
in their persons and property are hell
by no better tenure than the caprice
Of mob, the alienation Of their affec
tons from the government is tn
natural consequence, and to tina
/ sooner or later it must come.
Here, then. is one point from which
danger must be expected.
1.-THE question recurs, How shall w
fortify against it?
"The answer is simple. Let ever.
American, every lover of liberty, ever,
well-wisher to his posterity swear b.
the blood &C the Revolution never t
violate in the least particular the law