In the great journal of things happening under the sun, we,
the American People, find our account running, under 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 institutions, conducing 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 blessings. We toiled not in the acquirement or
establishment of them--they are a legacy bequeathed us, by a once hardy, brave,
and patriotic, but now lamented and departed race of ancestors. Their's was the
task (and nobly they performed it) to possess themselves, and through
themselves, us, of this goodly 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,
undecayed by the lapse of time and untorn by usurpation, to the latest
generation that fate shall permit the world to know. This task of gratitude to
our fathers, justice 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 approach 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
Buonaparte 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 a thousand years.
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected?
I answer, if it ever reach 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 freemen, we must live through all time, or die by
suicide. …
Abraham Lincoln in his address before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield,
Illinois
January 27, 1838
2 comments:
It really is a great speech and such a product of its time; Antebellum America... an America seeking an identity of its own now that the Founders were gone. A plea for reason over passion in a time when Mob Rule often supplanted the rule of law.
Though a product of its time; it is definately prescient and its themes can be translated to today.
Here's the full text: http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/lyceum.htm
It is indeed a fantastic speech. And I do indeed think that its themes are absolutely relevant to today. That is the very reason I excerpted this part of the wonderful speech. Thanks for your comment!
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