The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1922-02-02
LINCOLN FORESAW
POSSIBLE DANGER
URGED NECESSITY FOR RESPECT
FOR LAW AND ORDER
Words of the Great Emancipation Es-
pecislly Significant in the Turmoil
of the World Today.
1NIM
AW3

In his first great patriotic speech
now too little known, Abraham Lincoln
forecast many of the present da
political and social conditions. TIL
theme of this speech was the DANCE
to American institutions that woul,
come from within and the need TO
a greater respect for law and order.
"In the great journal of things hap
pening under the SUM-" said Mr.. Lin
coin. 1--WE, the American people, fine
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
situations conducting more essentially
to the ends of civil and religious
liberty than any of which the history
Of former times tells us.
awe, when mounting the stage of
existence, found ourselves the legal
mucTllOTS OIL IutSC IAhQdlnCht6f ~
sings. We toiled not In the acquire
ment or establishment of them, they
ARE a legacy b~equeathed to US by once
al hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now
Ia,mented and departed, race of our
ancestors. Theirs was the task (and
noply they performed it, to possess
themselves, and through themselves
u.s. of this goodly land, and to uprear
upon It's hills and It's valleys a political
edii1ce 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 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 to posterity
and love for our species in general all
fmperativeIy 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 a commander, could not by force
take a drink from the Ohio or make
a track on the Blue ridge in a trial of
q thousand years.
"At what point is the approach of
anger to be expected? | answer, II
1t ever reaches us it must spring up
us; 1t cannot come from
abroad. If destruction be our lot we
ourselves be It's author and
fnisher. AS a nation of free men we
must live through all time, or die by
After giving some examples of the
evil effects on the innocent as well as
the guilty, which occurred in the
operation of mob v~iolences, Mr.. Lin
coin continued:
ST know the American people are
much attached to their government l
they would suffer much for It's
sake; l know they would endure evils
long and patiently before they would
think of exchanging it for another
yet, notwithstanding all this, if the
be continually d~isregarded and
despised, if their rights to be secure
their persons and property are held
Dy no better tenure than the caprice
a mob, the alienation Of their affec-
lions from the government is the
consequence, and to that
soener or later it must come.
Here, then, is n point from which
Danger must be expected.
''The question recurs, How shall we
against itT
1.-THE answer Is simple. Let every
American. every lover of liberty. every
to his posterity swear by
he blood of the Revolution never to
In the least particular the laws