Milford chronicle., 1922-02-10
LINCOLN FORESAW
POSSIBLE DAM NGER
URGED NECESSITY FOR RESPECT
FOR LAW AND ORDER
Words of the Great Emanclpator Es.
peeiaIly Significant in the Turmoil
of the World Today

III Ills 4ll9l 6ACctL peAlAANAAN npNNNiA
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, tive, 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 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.
"We, when mounting the stage of
existence, found ourselves the legal
inheritors of these fundamental bles-
sings. We tOiled not in the acquire
ulCnL VI GSldDlAoA4lLClI VI lAANAAA5 bAAN'
are a legacy bequeathed to us by once
a hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now
lamented 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 |
upon it's hills and its valleys a political \
edifice of liberty and equal rights; It's
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.
'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 excepted) in
their military chest, with a 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? 1 answer, if
it ever reaches us it must spring up
amongst us; it cannot come from
abroad. If destruction be our lot we
must ourselves be its 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
4vil effects on the innocent as well as
he guilty, which occurred in the
peratiOn Of mob viOlences, Mr.. Lin
'Oln continued:
81 know the American people are
much attached to their government; !
now they would suffer much for it's I
axe; know they would endure evils {
Ong and patiently before they would q
,ver think of exchanging it for another Il
yet, Notwithstanding all this, if the
avs be continually disregarded and
lespised, if their rights to be secure
N their persons and property are held
~ no better tenure than the caprice II
# mob, the alienation of their affec- lii
ions from the government is the cl
latural consequence, and to that N
0Oner or later it must come. 90
Here, then, is one point from which a.,
anger must be expected.
"The question recurs, How shall we Id
GRITTY against itY q'
"The answer is simple. Let every al
merican, every lover of liberty, every ba
81 l-wiSher to his pOsterity swear by RI
ne blood of tine Revolution never to r,
iolate in the least particular the laws q,
Of the country, and never to tolerate u
their violation by others. AS the pa. Sc
triots of '76 did to the support of the tn
Declaration of Independence, and so to O.
the support Of the Constitution and sh
laws, let every American pledge his ca
life, his property, and his sacred honor nc
let every man remember that to VIC do
late the law is to trample on the blood 60
of his father, and to tear the charter ~,
of his own and children's liberty. ad
LET reverence for the laws be
'reathed by every American mother to 7
he lisping babe that prattles on her ]
ap; let it be taught in schools, in /
and in colleges; let it be nut
written in primers, in spelling books,
md In almanacs; let it be preached