Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1922-02-08
LINCOLN FORESAW
POSSIBLE DANGER
URGED NECESSITY FOR RESPECT
FOR LAW AND ORDER
Words of the Great Emancipation Es-
pecially 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.
I'm the great journal of things hap
pening under the sum- said Mr.. Lin
coin, 1--WE, 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
situations conducting more essentially
to the ends of civil and religious
liberty than any of which the history
of former times tells us.
1--WE, 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
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 it's valleys 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 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
imperatively require US. faithfully to
perform.
GLOW, then, shall we perform it? At
what point shall we expect the APP
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!
GAIL the armies Of Europe, Asia, and
Africa combined, with all the treasure
Of the earth (our own excepted) 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.
eat what point is the approach of
danger to be expected? l answer, If
1t 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
evil effects on the innocent as well as
the guilty, which occurred in the
operation of mob violences, Mr.. Lin
coin continued:
81 know the American people are
much attached to their government l
know they would suffer much for its
sake; 1 know they would endure evils
long and patiently before they would'
ever 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
tons from the government is the
natural consequence, and to that
sooner or later If must come
Here, then, is one point from which
danger must be expected.
''The question recurs, How shall we
fortify against it?'
ssThe answer is simple. Let every
American, every lover of liberty, every
welI-wisher to his posterity swear by
the blood of the Revolution never TO
violate in the least particular the laws
of the country, and never to tolerate
their violation by others. As the pa
triots of rs did to the support of the
Declaration of Independence. and so to
the support of the Constitution and
laws, let every American pledge his
let every man remember that to vio-
late the law is to trample on the blood
OF his father, and to tear the charter
Of his own and children's liberty.
Let reverence for the laws be
breathed by every American mother to
the lisping babe that prattles on her
lap; let it be taught in schools, in
written In primers. in spelling books,